Portal:Brazil

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Welcome to the Brazil Portal Main Indices   Projects   Amazon Rainforest Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil), is the largest and most populous country in South America, and the fifth largest in the world in both area and population. Its territory covers 8,514,876.599 km² between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean and it is the easternmost country of the Americas. It borders Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the département of French Guiana to the north, Uruguay to the south, Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest, Bolivia and Peru to the west, and Colombia to the northwest. The only South American countries not bordered by Brazil are Ecuador and Chile. The Brazilian coastline covers 7,367km (4,655 mi) along the Atlantic ocean. Numerous archipelagos are part of the Brazilian territory, such as Penedos de São Pedro e São Paulo, Fernando de Noronha, Trindade e Martim Vaz and Atol das Rocas. Tropical climate is predominant. In the south of the country, subtropical climate prevails. Brazil is traversed by the Equator and Tropic of Capricorn lines. It is home to varied fauna and flora and extensive natural resources. The Brazilian population tends to concentrate along the coastline in large urban centers. While Brazil has one of the largest populations in the world, population density is low and the inner continental land has large demographical empty spaces. It is a multiracial country composed of European, Amerindian, African and Asian elements, more often combined in the same individual than separated into different communities. The official language is Portuguese, and it is the only Portuguese-speaking country in all the Americas. Catholicism is the predominant religion, though Protestant communities have experienced significant growth in the last decades. Brazil has the largest Roman Catholic population in the world. Show new selections Credit: The Ogre The Portuguese Empire was the earliest and longest lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999. Portuguese explorers began exploring the coast of Africa in 1419, leveraging the latest developments in navigation, cartography and maritime technology such as the caravel, in order that they might find a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, by an accidental landfall on the South American coast for some, by the crown's secret design for others, Pedro Álvares Cabral would find and lead to the establishment of the colony of Brazil. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts and trading posts as they went. By 1571, a string of outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki: the empire had become truly global, and in the process brought great wealth to Portugal. Between 1580 and 1640 Portugal became the junior partner to Spain in the Iberian Union of the two countries' crowns. Though the empires continued to be administered separately, Portuguese colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to Spain and envious of Iberian successes overseas: The Netherlands (which was engaged in a war of independence against Spain), England and France. Paraíba is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast, where lies the easternmost point of the Americas, a cape called Ponta do Seixas. Paraíba coast has clear, calm beaches, with a barrier of reefs and natural pools. Credit: Agencia Brasil Daniela Mercury (Portuguese pronunciation: [dɐ̃niˈɛlɐ ˈmɛʁkuɾi]; born on July 28, 1965 in Salvador, Bahia) is a Latin Grammy Award-winning Brazilian axé, samba-reggae and MPB singer, songwriter and record producer. Since her breakthrough, Mercury has become one of the best known Brazilian female singers, selling over 8 million albums in her home country and almost 12 million albums worldwide. Her mother is Liliana Mercuri, a social worker of Italian ancestry, and her father is Antônio Fernando de Abreu Ferreira de Almeida, a Portuguese industrial mechanic. Mercury spent her childhood in a house in the Brotas neighborhood with her four siblings: Tom, Cristiana, Vânia (who would also become a singer) and Marcos. When Mercury was eight years old she started to take dance lessons (classic ballet, African dances and jazz). At thirteen, she decided to become a singer (apparently influenced by the work of Elis Regina) and at sixteen, she started to sing in trio elétricos. Two years later, she entered the Federal University of Bahia's School of Dance. Simca Vedette Chambord 1961 Credit: Dino1948 ...that the French car Simca Vedette (pictured) was first marketed as a Ford and later manufactured as a Chrysler in Brazil? ...that Polyandrococos, a genus of palm trees endemic to Brazil, is so named partly because of its hairy tomentum? ...that only about 10% of Brazil's water resources is located in the Southeast Region, the agricultural and industrial heartland of the country, where 73% of the population resides? Ponta Negra is the name of one of the best known beaches in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. The large, crescent-shaped beach is located at the southern end of the Via Costeira, a major thoroughfare which follows the Atlantic coastline northward, linking the Ponta Negra area with the urban beaches of Praia dos Artistas, Praia do Meio, and Praia do Forte. Latin America Argentina Bolivia Colombia Chile Ecuador French Guiana Guyana Paraguay Peru Suriname Uruguay Venezuela The following Wikimedia sister projects provide more on this subject: