Brazil

The Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, IPA: ) is the largest and most populous country in Latin America, and fifth largest in the world. Spanning a vast area between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean, it is the easternmost country of the Americas and it borders Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French department of French Guiana—every South American nation except for Ecuador and Chile. Named after brazilwood (pau-brasil), a tree highly valued by early colonists, Brazil is home to both extensive agricultural lands and rain forests. Exploiting vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is South America's leading economic power and a regional leader. It is also considered one of the world's major powers. As a former colony of Portugal, Portuguese is its official language.

History

Brazil is thought to have been inhabited for at least 10,000 years by semi-nomadic populations when the first Portuguese explorers, led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, disembarked in 1500. Over the next three centuries, it was resettled by the Portuguese and exploited mainly for brazilwood (Pau-Brasil) at first, and later for sugarcane (Cana-de-Açúcar) agriculture and gold mining. The colony's source of manpower was initially on enslaved Amerindians, and after 1550, mainly African slaves. In 1808, Queen Maria I of Portugal and her son and regent, the future João VI of Portugal, fleeing from Napoleon, relocated to Brazil with the royal family, nobles and government.

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