Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people. It is the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas and the largest lusophone country in the world.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 km (4,655 mi). It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas region of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos form part of Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz. It borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile.
Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom and the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was formed. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese colonial Empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the formation of the Empire of Brazil, a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The country became a presidential republic in 1889, when a military coup d'état proclaimed the Republic, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to the ratification of the first constitution in 1824. Its current Constitution, formulated in 1988, defines Brazil as a Federal Republic. The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.
The Brazilian economy is the world's seventh largest by nominal GDP and the eighth largest by purchasing power parity. Brazil is one of the world's fastest growing major economies. Economic reforms have given the country new international recognition. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, CPLP, Latin Union, the Organization of Ibero-American States, Mercosul and the Union of South American Nations, and is one of the BRIC countries. Brazil is also home to diverse wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.
HISTORY
Portuguese Colonization
The
land now called Brazil was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of
the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral. The Portuguese
encountered stone age natives divided into several tribes, most of whom spoke
languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, and fought among themselves.
Though the first settlement was founded in 1532, colonization was effectively begun in 1534, when Dom João III divided the territory into twelve hereditary captaincies, but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor-General to administer the entire colony. The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes while others were enslaved or exterminated in long wars or by European diseases to which they had no immunity. By the mid-16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export and the Portuguese imported African slaves to cope with the increasing international demand.
Through
wars against the French, the Portuguese slowly expanded their territory to the
southeast, taking Rio de Janeiro in 1567, and to the northwest, taking São Luís
in 1615. They sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest and conquered
British and Dutch strongholds, founding villages and forts from 1669. In 1680
they reached the far south and founded Sacramento on the bank of the Rio de la
Plata, in the Eastern Strip region (present-day Uruguay).
At the
end of the 17th century, sugar exports started to decline but beginning in the 1690s, the discovery of gold by explorers in the region
that would later be called Minas Gerais (General Mines) in current Mato Grosso
and Goiás, saved the colony from imminent collapse. From all over Brazil, as
well as from Portugal, thousands of immigrants came to the mines.
The
Spanish tried to prevent Portuguese expansion into the territory that belonged
to them according to the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas, and succeeded in
conquering the Eastern Strip in 1777. However, this was in vain as the Treaty
of San Ildefonso, signed in the same year, confirmed Portuguese sovereignty
over all lands proceeding from its territorial expansion, thus creating most of
the current Brazilian borders.
In
1808, the Portuguese royal family and the majority of the Portuguese nobility,
fleeing the troops of the French Emperor Napoleon I that were invading Portugal
and most of Central Europe, established themselves in the city of Rio de
Janeiro, which thus became the seat of the entire Portuguese Empire. In 1815 Dom João VI, then regent on behalf
of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom
united with Portugal. In 1809 the Portuguese invaded French Guiana (which was
returned to France in 1817)and in 1816 the Eastern Strip, subsequently renamed Cisplatina.
Independence and Empire
After
the Portuguese military had successfully repelled Napoleon's invasion, the King
João VI returned to Europe
on 26 April 1821, leaving his elder son Prince Pedro de Alcântara as regent to
rule Brazil. The Portuguese government, guided by the new political regime
imposed by the Liberal Revolution of 1820, attempted to turn Brazil into a
colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808. The
Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the
country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822. On 12 October 1822,
Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil and crowned Dom Pedro I on 1
December 1822.
At
that time most Brazilians were in favour of a monarchy and republicanism had
little support. The subsequent Brazilian War of Independence spread through
almost the entire territory, with battles in the northern, northeastern, and
southern regions. The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824 and
independence was recognized by Portugal on 29 August 1825.
The
first Brazilian constitution was promulgated on 25 March 1824, after its
acceptance by the municipal councils across the country. Pedro I abdicated on 7
April 1831 and went to Europe to reclaim his daughter’s crown, leaving behind
his five year old son and heir, who was to become Dom Pedro II. As the new
emperor could not exert his constitutional prerogatives until he reached
maturity, a regency was created.
Disputes
between political factions led to rebellions and an unstable, almost
anarchical, regency. It is estimated that from 30 to 40% of the population of
the Province of Grão-Pará died during the Cabana gem revolt. The rebellious
factions, however, were not in revolt against the monarchy, even though some
declared the secession of the provinces as independent republics, but only so
long as Pedro II was a minor. Because of this, Pedro II was prematurely
declared of age and "Brazil was to enjoy nearly half a century of internal
peace and rapid material progress."
Despite
the loss of Cisplatina in 1828 when it became an independent nation known as Uruguay,
Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II (the Platine
War, the Uruguayan War and the War of the Triple Alliance, which left over 50,000
dead) and witnessed the consolidation of representative democracy, mainly due
to successive elections and unrestricted freedom of the press. Most
importantly, slavery was extinguished after a slow but steady process that
began with the end of the international traffic in slaves in 1850 and ended
with the complete abolition of slavery in 1888. The slave
population had been in decline since Brazil's independence: in 1823, 29% of the
Brazilian population were slaves but by 1887 this had fallen to 5%.
When
the monarchy was overthrown on 15 November 1889 there was little desire in
Brazil to change the form of government and Pedro II was at the height of his
popularity among his subjects. However, he "bore prime, perhaps sole,
responsibility for his own overthrow." After the death of his two sons,
Pedro believed that "the imperial regime was destined to end with
him." He cared little for the regime's fate and so neither did anything,
nor allowed anyone else to do anything, to prevent the military coup, backed by
former slave owners who resented the abolition of slavery.
Early republic
At
the beginning of the republican government it was little more than a military
dictatorship, and the new constitution restricted political rights, such as the
right to vote, yet provided for direct elections to be held in 1894. However,
already in 1891, from the unfoldings of the encilhamento bubble and of the 1st
naval revolt, the country entered in a prolonged cycle of financial, social and
political instability, that would extend until the 1920s keeping the country
plagued by several rebellions, both civilian as military, which little by
little undermined the regime in a such extent, that by 1930 it was possible to
the defeated presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by the majority
of military, lead a coup d'état and assume the presidency.
Vargas
and the military, who were supposed to assume the government temporarily to
implement democratic reforms related to 1891's Constitution, closed the
Congress and ruled with emergency powers, replacing the states' governors with
their supporters. Under the Claiming of the broken promises of changing, in
1932 the oligarchy of São Paulo tried to regain the power and in 1935 the Communists
rebelled, having both been defeated. However, the communist threat served as an
excuse for Vargas to preclude elections launching another coup d'état in 1937,
creating a full dictatorship. In May 1938, there was another failed attempt to
takeover the power by local fascists.
In
foreign policy, the success in resolving border disputes with neighboring
countries in the early years of this period, was followed by a failed attempt
to permanently exert a prominent role in the League of Nations after military
involvement in World War I. Notwithstanding, Brazil remained neutral at the
beginning of World War II until the Pan-American Conference of January 1942
when Brazil stood alongside the U.S.A. severing diplomatic relations with the Axis
powers. In retaliation, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy extended their submarine
warfare against Brazil, which led the country to enter the war on the allied
side in August of that year. With the allied victory in 1945 and the end of the
Nazi-fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas's position became unsustainable and he
was swiftly overthrown in another military coup. Democracy was reinstated and
General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected president taking office in 1946. Having
returned to power democratically elected at the end of 1950, Vargas committed
suicide in August 1954 amid a political crisis.
Contemporary
era
Several
brief interim governments succeeded after Vargas's suicide. Juscelino
Kubitscheck became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture towards
the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises. The
economy and industrial sector grew remarkably, but his greatest achievement was
the construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960. His
successor was Jânio Quadros, who resigned in 1961 less than a year after taking
office. His vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but aroused
strong political opposition and was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that
resulted in a military regime. The new regime was intended to be transitory but
it gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the
promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968. The repression of the dictatorship's
opponents, including urban guerrillas, was harsh, but not as brutal as in other
Latin American countries. Due to the extraordinary economic growth, known as an
"economic miracle", the regime reached its highest level of
popularity in the years of repression.
General Ernesto
Geisel became president in 1974 and began his project of re-democratization
through a process that he said would be "slow, gradual and safe”. Geisel
ended the military indiscipline that had plagued the country since 1889, as
well as the torture of political prisoners, censorship of the press, and
finally, the dictatorship itself, after he extinguished the Fifth Institutional
Act. However, the military regime continued, under his chosen successor General
João Figueiredo, to complete the transition to full democracy. The civilians
fully returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency but, by
the end of his term, he had become extremely unpopular due to the
uncontrollable economic crisis and unusually high inflation. Sarney's
unsuccessful government allowed the election in 1989 of the almost unknown Fernando
Collor, who was subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992. Collor
was succeeded by his Vice-President Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando
Henrique Cardoso as Minister of Finance. Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano
Real (Royal or Real Plan) that granted stability to the Brazilian economy and
he was elected as president in 1994 and again in 1998. The peaceful transition
of power to Luís Inácio Lula da Silva, who was elected in 2002 and re-elected
in 2006, proved that Brazil had finally succeeded in achieving its long-sought
political stability. Lula was succeeded in 2011 by the current president, Dilma
Rousseff.
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