Half of South America in one federation of 214 million
Brazil covers about half of South America and borders every country on the continent except Chile and Ecuador. With over 214 million people it ranks seventh in the world by population and fifth by area, and alone in the Americas it has Portuguese as its official language.
The federation has 26 states plus a Federal District holding the capital, Brasília, while São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are its largest cities. Its Atlantic shoreline runs 7,491 kilometres, and it holds most of the Amazon basin, the largest river system and the most extensive untouched tropical forest on the planet. The name comes from brazilwood, prized in Europe for its deep red dye; officials first called the colony Land of the Holy Cross, but sailors' Land of Brazil won out.
Luzia Woman, found near Pedro Leopoldo in Minas Gerais, shows people were here at least 11,000 years ago, and pottery near Santarém in the Amazon, over 8,000 years old, is the oldest yet found in the Western Hemisphere. The Marajoara culture of Marajó island made sophisticated ceramics from AD 400 to 1400. When the Portuguese came, roughly 7 million Indigenous people lived in the territory, among them Tupi, Guarani and Gê groups.
Pedro Álvares Cabral's fleet claimed the land for Portugal on 22 April 1500, following the Tordesillas treaty of 1494. São Vicente, the first town, dates from 1532; fifteen private captaincies followed in 1534, and in 1549 the crown centralised rule at Salvador. Sugar became the leading export, and between 1500 and 1800 Brazil took in over 2.8 million enslaved Africans. A gold rush after bandeirantes struck gold in the 1690s drew thousands of new settlers.
Fleeing Napoleonic threats in late 1807, the Portuguese court moved to Rio de Janeiro, opened the ports to foreign trade and founded a national bank. In 1815 Brazil was raised to equal partner in a United Kingdom with Portugal and the Algarves. When the Lisbon Cortes tried to reduce it to a colony again, Prince Pedro declared independence on 7 September 1822 and became Emperor Pedro I; Portugal recognised the new state on 29 August 1825.
Source: Brazil
