Discover Brazil

Geography  –  Historical Reminder  –  Economy  –  Politics

Geography

Brazil is the largest state in South America.

It covers almost half of the surface of the South American continent. Bordered to the east and north by the Atlantic Ocean, its northern neighbors are Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana. To the west are Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru, to the northwest Colombia and to the south Uruguay. It has an area of 8,511,966 km2.The capital is Brasilia, but the most important cities are Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Fortaleza, capital of the state of Céara, is the 5th largest city in the country with 3.5 million inhabitants.

The Pic da Neblina, the highest point in Brazil at 3,014 m, is located on the border with Venezuela, in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon.

More than two thirds of Brazil is drained by the Amazon and Tocantins rivers. The Amazon River, 6,280 km long, flows from its source in Iquitos, Peru, to its mouth on the northeast coast of Brazil. It is navigable for 3,700 km by deep-sea freighters.
Although only 62 million hectares are under cultivation, less than 7.5% of the country’s total land area, Brazil is a major agricultural power. Thanks to the Amazon rainforest, which covers nearly 5.7 million km2 , it has immense wood resources. It also has many mineral resources, including quartz, diamonds, chromium, coal, manganese, oil, titanium, gold, bauxite, zinc, mercury, iron ore, mica, tin and phosphate.

Due to its vastness, Brazil has a wide variety of climates, ranging from tropical to subtropical.

Historical Reminder

The History of Brazil In a few dates. Use the lateral arrows < > to navigate.

1500
Discovery of the brazilian coasts by the portuguese sailor Pedro Alvares Cabral.
1532
The first africans are sent to Brazil
1600
Brazil becomes the 1st worldwide sugar producer and exporter and fully participates to the triangular trade.
1630
The Dutch seize on the cities of Recife, Natal et Salvador, to make sure they will benefit from some of the sugar production.
1652 -1654
First Anglo-Dutch war. Portugal has its territories back.
1650
Estimates : 70,000 whites, 80,000 half-breed and 100,000 black people.
1775
Slavery abolition for the indians while african slavery is increasing.
1808
The king of Portugal Jean VI has to flee Lisbonne to go to Rio after Napoleonic troups invided Portugal. Rio becomes the capital of the colonial portuguese Empire. Brazil looses its colonial statute and trades all over the world.
1822
The monarch Pierre the 1st of Brazil, son of Jean VI declares the independance of Brazil.

Population estimates : 360,000 indians, 700,000 half-breeds, 920,000 whites, 2,000,000 black people.
1884
The state of Ceara is the first state of Brazil to proclaim the liberation of slaves, 4 years bebore the end of slavery in the whole country.
1888
The Aurea law abolishes slavery. Landowners resistance uprising that organize a coup d'etat. The empire and Pierre II of Brazil are overthrown in 1889.
1889
Proclamation of the Republic of Brazil
Until 1888, the country would have had imported more than 8 generations of african slaves, which makes about 5,5 millions of africans deported from the XVI th century up to 1850.
1889-1930
The Old Republic

The Republic is based on the states union model, it's a federal state, a republic, right born against a progressist empire. It's the period of the reign of the landowners.
1930-1964
Vargas, populism and development
1930
Coup d’état that will kill the coffee oligarchy, will develop the rise of the middle class and will bring to power Getulio Vargas. Vargas establishes a strong executif and a strong state, brings the country to the universal right to vote, the right for women to vote and the secret vote. He commits suicide in 1954.
1964-1985
Military regime.

1964 : military coup d’état, the government becomes a repressive military dictatorship.
1985-2002
The democratic phase. Presidential election is every 4 years. José Sarney becomes the president. It's the period of strong external debt, of runaway inflation and corruption.
1989
The new president, Fernando Collor de Mello, becomes the first president since 1960 to get elected by a popular vote.
1992
The president Itamar Franco replaces Mello at a time of deep economic crisis. Inflation is at 1100% and at 6000% in 1993.The Real Plan will allow to curb inflation.
1994-2002
The President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is elected for 8 years.
Previous
Next

Economy

Despite the world economic crisis, Brazil is showing an exemplary economic health.
The Gross domestic product (GDP) of Brazil recorded a growth of 5.1% in 2008 to reach 2,900 billion reals (1,250 billion dollars, with the foreign exchange rate at the end of December 2009) according to Institute of geography and statistics (IBGE).

The investment rate of last year reached 19% and was the highest since the IBGE started to calculate it in the year 2000.

Brazil, the 10th world economic power country, is the first economic partner of France in Latin America; the indicators are with the green: strong growth of the markets, new legal framework, development of the credit to the households, strong revival of construction, creation of economic actors of international scale, TGV Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo for 2014?

Politics

Political institutions

Brazil is a constitutional federal republic with 26 states and a federal district, the capital of Brasilia.

The actual constitution promulgated in 1988 and replacing the one of 1969,
maintains the presidential regime in place since the first  constitution of 1891 has been established.At the top of the executive power, the President of the Republic, who is the head of the state and the head of the government, is elected every 4 years.

The legislative power is in the hands of the National Congress and comprises 2 chambers:
The Senate with 81 senators who are elected for 8 years and the chamber of  deputies with 503 deputies to serve four-year terms. It is the same scheme with the States.

Political life

In Brazil, voting is compulsory if you are aged between 18 and 70 and literate. Voting for illiterates 16 and 17 years old and those over 70 is voluntary.
At the moment, there are about 27 political parties.

© 2025 Casa Theodora.
Shopping Basket