Brazil
(Portuguese: Brasil), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese:
República Federativa do Brasil, is the largest country in South America and the only
Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas, It is both the world's fifth
largest country by geographical area and by population.
Bounded
by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491
kilometers (4,655 mi). 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 are part of the
Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and
Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.
Brazil
was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until
its independence in 1822. Initially independent as the Brazilian Empire, 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.
Its current Constitution 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.
Brazil
is the world's eighth largest economy by nominal GDP and the ninth largest by
purchasing power parity. Economic reforms have given the country new
international recognition. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations,
the G20, 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.
Portuguese colonization and territorial expansion
The
land now called Brazil (the origin of whose name is disputed), 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 shared the same Tupi-Guarani linguistic family,
and fought among themselves.
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.
The
first Christian mass in Brazil, 1500.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 the discovery
of gold by explorers in the region that would later be called Minas Gerais
(General Mines) around 1693, and in the following decades 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, 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
Declaration of the Brazilian independence by Emperor
Pedro I on 7 September 1822.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 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 almost all Brazilians were in favor 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.
Emperor Dom Pedro II. Due to "the length of
government and the transformations that occurred, no other head of State has
ever had a deeper impact on the country’s history". 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.[54]
Disputes between political factions led to
rebellions and an unstable, almost anarchical, regency. 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."
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) 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.
Old republic and Vargas era
The Brazilian coup d'état of 1930 raised Getúlio
Vargas (center with military uniform but no hat) to power. He would rule the
country for fifteen years.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". In 1894 the republican civilians rose to
power, opening a "prolonged cycle of civil war, financial disaster, and
government incompetence." By 1902, the government began a return to the
policies pursued during the Empire, policies that promised peace and order at
home and a restoration of Brazil's prestige abroad. and was successful in
negotiating several treaties that expanded (with the purchase of Acre) and
secured the Brazilian boundaries.
In the 1920s the country was plagued by several
rebellions caused by young military officers. By 1930, the regime was weakened
and demoralized, which allowed the defeated presidential candidate Getúlio
Vargas to lead a coup d'état and assume the presidency. Vargas was supposed to
assume the presidency temporarily but instead, he closed the National Congress,
extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and replaced the
states' governors with his supporters.
In 1935 Communists rebelled across the country and
made an unsuccessful bid for power. The communist threat, however, served as an
excuse for Vargas to launch another coup d'état in 1937 and Brazil became a
full dictatorship. The repression of the opposition was brutal with more than
20,000 people imprisoned, internment camps created for political prisoners in
distant regions of the country, widespread torture by the government agents of
repression, and censorship of the press.
Brazil remained neutral during the early years of
World War II until the government declared war against the Axis powers in 1942.
Vargas then forced German, Japanese and Italian immigrants into concentration
camps, and, in 1944, sent troops to the battlefields in Italy. 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 a military coup.
Democracy was reinstated and General Eurico Gaspar Dutra was elected president
and took office in 1946. Vargas returned to power in 1951, this time
democratically elected, but he was incapable of either governing under a
democracy or of dealing with an active opposition, and he committed suicide in
1954.
Military regime and 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.
The transition from Fernando Henrique Cardoso to
Luís Inácio Lula da Silva revealed that Brazil had finally succeeded in
achieving its long-sought political stability.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 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.
States and municipalities
Brazil
is a federation composed of twenty-six States, one federal district (which
contains the capital city, Brasília) and municipalities. States have autonomous
administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected
by the Federal government. They have a governor and a unicameral legislative
body elected directly by their voters. They also have independent Courts of Law
for common justice. Despite this, states have much less autonomy to create
their own laws than in the United States. For example, criminal and civil laws
can only be voted by the federal bicameral Congress and are uniform throughout
the country.