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 BrazilComments on Brazil
About Brazil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the country. For other uses, see Brazil (disambiguation).
Brazil ( Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi).[9] It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French overseas department 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.[9] It borders with 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 United Kingdom with Portugal and Algarves. The colonial bond was in fact broken in 1808, when the capital of the Portuguese Kingdom was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, after Napoleon invaded Portugal.[11] The independence from Portugal was achieved in 1822. Initially independent as the Empire of Brazil, the country has been a republic since 1889, although the bicameral legislature, now called Congress, dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified.[11] Its current Constitution defines Brazil as a Federal Republic.[12] The Federation is formed by the union of the Federal District, the 26 States, and the 5,564 Municipalities.[12][13] The Brazilian economy is the world's eighth largest economy by nominal GDP[14] and the seventh largest by purchasing power parity.[15] Brazil is one of the world's fastest growing major economies. Economic reforms have given the country new international recognition.[16] 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 a diversity of wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.[9]
EtymologyMain article: Name of Brazil
The etymology of Brazil remains unclear. Traditionally, the word "Brazil" comes from brazilwood, a timber tree that many sailors traded from Brazilian regions to Europe in the 16th century.[17] In Portuguese brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology "red like an ember," formed from Latin brasa ("ember") and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).[18][19][20] This theory is taught as official in schools of Brazil and Portugal. However, the Brazilian scholar José Adelino da Silva Azevedo has postulated that the word is much older, either of Celtic or Phoenician origin. The Phoenicians traded a red dye extracted from a mineral mined in Celtic lands, from Iberia to Ireland.[21] In Irish mythology there is a Western island called Hy-Brazil, and this is seen by some, including Tolkien,[22] as one of the most likely etymological sources for the name "Brazil." The same theory was also advanced by 16th century scholars.[17] In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama." This was the name the natives gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees." HistoryMain article: History of Brazil
Portuguese colonizationMain article: Colonial Brazil
See also: Indigenous peoples in Brazil and Slavery in Brazil
The land now called Brazil was claimed by Portugal in April 1500, on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral.[23] The Portuguese encountered stone age natives divided into several tribes, most of whom shared the same Tupi-Guarani linguistic family, and fought among themselves.[24] 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,[25][26] but this arrangement proved problematic and in 1549 the king assigned a Governor-General to administer the entire colony.[26][27] The Portuguese assimilated some of the native tribes[28] while others were enslaved or exterminated in long wars or by European diseases to which they had no immunity.[29][30] By the mid-16th century, sugar had become Brazil's most important export[24][31] and the Portuguese imported African slaves[32][33] to cope with the increasing international demand.[29][34] 
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.[35] They sent military expeditions to the Amazon rainforest and conquered British and Dutch strongholds,[36] founding villages and forts from 1669.[37] 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).[38] At the end of the 17th century, sugar exports started to decline[39] 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.[40] From all over Brazil, as well as from Portugal, thousands of immigrants came to the mines.[41] 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.[42] In 1808, the Portuguese royal family, 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.[43] In 1815 Dom João VI, then regent on behalf of his incapacitated mother, elevated Brazil from colony to sovereign Kingdom united with Portugal.[43] In 1809 the Portuguese invaded French Guiana (which was returned to France in 1817)[44] and in 1816 the Eastern Strip, subsequently renamed Cisplatina[45] (but Brazil lost it in 1828 when it became an independent nation known as Uruguay).[46] Independence and EmpireMain articles: Brazilian Independence and Empire of Brazil
King João VI returned to Europe on 26 April 1821, leaving his elder son Prince Pedro de Alcântara as regent to rule Brazil.[47] The Portuguese government attempted to turn Brazil into a colony once again, thus depriving it of its achievements since 1808.[48] The Brazilians refused to yield and Prince Pedro stood by them declaring the country's independence from Portugal on 7 September 1822.[49] On 12 October 1822, Pedro was declared the first Emperor of Brazil and crowned Dom Pedro I on 1 December 1822.[50] 
At that time most Brazilians were in favour of a monarchy and republicanism had little support.[51][52] The subsequent Brazilian War of Independence spread through almost the entire territory, with battles in the northern, northeastern, and southern regions.[53] The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824[54] and independence was recognized by Portugal on 29 August 1825.[55] The first Brazilian constitution was promulgated on 25 March 1824, after its acceptance by the municipal councils across the country.[56][57][58][59] 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.[60] As the new emperor could not exert his constitutional prerogatives until he reached maturity, a regency was created.[61] Disputes between political factions led to rebellions and an unstable, almost anarchical, regency.[62] The rebellious factions, however, were not in revolt against the monarchy,[63][64] even though some declared the secession of the provinces as independent republics, but only so long as Pedro II was a minor.[65] 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."[66] 
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)[67] and witnessed the consolidation of representative democracy, mainly due to successive elections and unrestricted freedom of the press.[68] Most importantly, slavery was extinguished after a slow but steady process that began with the end of the international traffic in slaves in 1850[69] and ended with the complete abolition of slavery in 1888.[70] 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%.[71] When the monarchy was overthrown on 15 November 1889[72] there was little desire in Brazil to change the form of government[73] and Pedro II was at the height of his popularity among his subjects.[74][75] However, he "bore prime, perhaps sole, responsibility for his own overthrow."[76] After the death of his two sons, Pedro believed that "the imperial regime was destined to end with him."[77] He cared little for the regime's fate[78][79] 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.[80][81][82] Early Republic
The "early republican government was little more than a military dictatorship. The army dominated affairs both at Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power". This country information has been retrieved from wikipedia.org and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, which means that you can copy and modify it as long as the entire work (including additions) remains under this license.
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