Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil or República Federativa do Brasil), is the largest and most populous country in Latin America, and the fifth largest in the world in both area and population. Its territory covers 8,514,877 km² between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean, and it is the eastern-most country of the Americas.
It borders Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the department of French Guiana to the north, Uruguay to the south, Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest, Bolivia and Peru to the west, and Colombia to the northwest. The only South American countries not bordered by Brazil are Ecuador and Chile. The Brazilian coastline covers 7,367 km to the east. Numerous archipelagos are part of the Brazilian territory, such as Penedos de São Pedro e São Paulo, Fernando de Noronha, Trindade e Martim Vaz and Atol das Rocas.
A tropical climate is predominant. In the south of the country, subtropical climate prevails. Brazil is cut through by the Equator and Tropic of Capricorn. It is home to varied fauna and flora and extensive natural resources.
Brazil was colonized by Portugal from 1500 until its independence in 1822. The republican system has been adopted since 1889, although its parliament dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified. Its current Constitution defines Brazil as a Federative Republic. The Federation is formed by the indissoluble association of the States, the Federal District, and the Municipalities. There are currently 26 States and 5,564 Municipalities.
The Brazilian population tends to concentrate along the coastline in large urban centers. While Brazil has one of the largest populations in the world, population density is low and the inner continental land has large areas of low population. It is a multiracial country composed of European, Amerindian, African and Asian elements. The official language is Portuguese, and it is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. Catholicism is the predominant religion, though Protestant communities have experienced significant growth in the last decades. Brazil has the largest Roman Catholic population in the world.
During the early 1990s Brazil started following new trends by opening its economy to free trade and implementing a large scale privatization plan, as well as expanding the agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors. Although the country still faces many social and structural problems, there have been substantial economical developments through stabilization programs.
The first names used for the new-found-land were Ilha de Vera Cruz ("Vera Cruz Island") and Terra de Santa Cruz ("Santa Cruz Land"). Soon after "Brazil" was adopted.
According to the traditional theory, Brazil was named after brazilwood tree, an abundant species in the Brazilian coastline at the time Portuguese explorers first arrived. Its reddish wood was used to color clothes and fabrics. Another theory connects the name of the country to the Irish myth of Hy-Brazil, a phantom island similar to St. Brendan's Island.
Geography and climate
Iguazu water falls
Brazil is characterized by the extensive low-lying Amazon Rainforest in the north and a more open terrain of hills and low mountains to the south — home to most of the Brazilian population and its agricultural base. Along the Atlantic coast there are several mountain ranges, at the top altitude of roughly 2,900 meters (9,500 ft). The highest peak is the 3,014 meter (9,735 ft) Pico da Neblina (Misty Peak) in Guiana's highlands. Major rivers include the Amazon, the largest river in the world in flowing water volume, and the second-longest in the world; the Paraná and its major tributary, the Iguaçu River, where the Iguaçu Falls are located; the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and the Tapajós rivers.
A number of islands in the Atlantic Ocean are part of Brazil: Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, Rocas Atoll, Fernando de Noronha and Trindade and Martim Vaz.
Located mainly within the tropics, Brazil's climate has little seasonal variation. Southern Brazil, however, has a subtropical temperate weather, occasionally experiencing frost and snow in the higher regions. Precipitation is abundant in the humid Amazon Basin, but more arid landscapes are found as well, particularly in the northeast.
Although 90% of the country is within the tropical zone, the climate of Brazil varies considerably from the mostly tropical North (the equator traverses the mouth of the Amazon) to temperate zones below the Tropic of Capricorn (23°27' S latitude), which crosses the country at the latitude of the city of São Paulo. Brazil has five climatic regions: equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland tropical, and subtropical.
Temperatures along the equator are high, averaging above 25 °C, reaching the summer extremes of up to 40 °C in the temperate zones. There is little seasonal variation near the equator, although at times it can get cool enough for wearing a jacket, especially in the rain. At the country's other extreme, there are frosts south of the Tropic of Capricorn during the winter (June-August), and in some years there is snow in the mountainous areas, such as Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina. Temperatures in the cities of São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, and Brasília are moderate (usually between 15 °C and 30 °C), because of their elevation of approximately 1,000 meters. Rio de Janeiro, Recife and Salvador, located in the coast, have warm climates, with average temperatures ranging from 23 °C to 27 °C. The southern cities of Porto Alegre and Curitiba have a subtropical climate similar to that in parts of the United States and Europe, and temperatures can fall under zero degrees Celsius in the winter.
Precipitation levels vary widely. Most of Brazil has moderate rainfall of between 1,000 and 1,500 millimeters a year, with most of the rain falling in the summer (between December and April), south of the Equator. The Amazon region is notoriously humid, with rainfall generally more than 2,000 millimeters per year and reaching as high as 3,000 millimeters in parts of the western Amazon and near Belém. It is less widely known that, despite high annual precipitation, the Amazon rain forest has a three- to five-month dry season, the timing of which varies according to location north or south of the equator.