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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest and easternmost country in South America. It is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the seventh largest by population, with over 212 million people. The country is a federation composed of 26 states and a Federal District, which hosts the capital, Brasília. Its most populous city is São Paulo, followed by Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has the most Portuguese speakers in the world and is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese is an official language.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of . Covering roughly half of South America's land area, it borders all other countries and territories on the continent except Ecuador and Chile. Brazil encompasses a wide range of tropical and subtropical landscapes, as well as Pantanal, Cerrado, plateaus, and low mountains. It contains most of the Amazon basin, including the Amazon River and most extensive virgin tropical forest. Brazil has diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. The country ranks first among 17 megadiverse countries, with its natural heritage being the subject of significant global interest, as environmental degradation (through processes such as deforestation) directly affect global issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss.
Brazil was inhabited by various indigenous peoples prior to the landing of Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500. It was claimed and settled by Portugal, which forcibly imported enslaved Africans to work on plantations. Brazil remained a Colonial Brazil until 1815, when it was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves after the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro. Prince Pedro of Braganza declared the country's independence in 1822, establishing the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Brazil's first constitution in 1824 established a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress, and enshrined principles such as freedom of religion and the press, but retained slavery, which was gradually abolished throughout the 19th century until its final abolition in 1888. Brazil became a presidential republic following a military coup d'état in 1889. An authoritarian military dictatorship emerged in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, enacted in 1988, defines it as a Democracy federal republic.
Brazil is a regional power and middle power and emerging power. It is an Emerging market, upper-middle income economy and newly industrialized country, with one of the 10 largest economies in the world in both nominal and PPP terms, the largest economy in Latin America and the Southern Hemisphere, and the largest share of wealth in South America. With a complex and highly diversified economy, Brazil is one of the world's major or primary exporters of various agricultural goods, mineral resources, and manufactured products. Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, G4, Mercosur, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries; it is also an observer state of the Arab League and a major non-NATO ally of the United States.
The official Portuguese name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross" ( Terra da Santa Cruz), but European sailors and merchants commonly called it the "Land of Brazil" ( Terra do Brasil) because of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name. Some early sailors called it the "Land of Parrots".
In the Guaraní language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama", meaning 'land of the palm trees'.
Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people, mostly semi-nomadic, who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. The population comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups (e.g., the Tupis, Guaranis, Gês, and Arawak peoples). The Tupi people were subdivided into the Tupiniquim and Tupinambás.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs. These wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water, with cannibalistic rituals on prisoners of war.Gomes, Mercio P. The Indians and Brazil University Press of Florida 2000 pp. 28–29 While heredity had some weight, leadership was a status more won over time than assigned in succession ceremonies and conventions. Slavery among the indigenous groups had a different meaning than it had for Europeans, since it originated from a diverse socioeconomic organization, in which asymmetries were translated into kinship relations.
However, the decentralized and unorganized tendencies of the captaincies proved problematic, and in 1549 the Portuguese king restructured them into the Governorate General of Brazil in the city of Salvador, which became the capital of a single and centralized Portuguese colony in South America.Boxer, p. 101. In the first two centuries of colonization, Indigenous and European groups lived in constant war, establishing opportunistic alliances in order to gain advantages against each other.Meuwese, Mark "Brothers in Arms, Partners in Trade: Dutch-Indigenous Alliances in the Atlantic World, 1595–1674" Koninklijke Brill NV 2012 Chapter IIIMetcalf, Alida C. "Go-betweens And the Colonization of Brazil: 1500–1600" University of Texas Press 2005, pp. 70, 79, 202 View on Google Books Minahan, James B. "Ethnic Groups of the Americas" ABC-CLIO 2013 p. 300, View on Google Books
By the mid-16th century, cane sugar had become Brazil's most important export,Skidmore, p. 36. while slaves purchased in Sub-Saharan Africa in the slave market of Western AfricaRichard Middleton and Anne Lombard "Colonial America: A History to 1763" Wiley-Blackwell Publishing 1st edition 1992 Chapter 2, Section 4 (final, last page and half of previous one) View on Google Books (not only those from Portuguese allies of their colonies in Angola and Mozambique), had become its largest import,Boxer, p. 110Skidmore, p. 34. to cope with Engenho, due to increasing international demand for Brazilian sugar.Boxer, p. 102.Skidmore, pp. 32–33. Brazil received more than 2.8 million slaves from Africa between the years 1500 and 1800.
By the end of the 17th century, sugarcane exports began to declineBoxer, p. 164. and the discovery of gold by bandeirantes in the 1690s would become the new backbone of the colony's economy, fostering a gold rushBoxer, pp. 168, 170. which attracted thousands of new settlers to Brazil from Portugal and all Portuguese colonies around the world.Boxer, p. 169. This increased level of immigration in turn caused some conflicts between newcomers and old settlers.
Portuguese expeditions known as bandeiras gradually expanded Brazil's original colonial frontiers in South America to its approximately current borders.Corrado, Jacopo "The Creole Elite and the Rise of Angolan Protonationalism" Cambria Press 2008 pp. 95 (Brazil) and 145, note 5 View on Google Books In this era, other European powers tried to colonize parts of Brazil, in incursions that the Portuguese had to fight, notably the French in Rio during the 1560s, in Maranhão during the 1610s, and the Dutch in Bahia and Pernambuco, during the Dutch–Portuguese War, after the end of Iberian Union.Bethell, Leslie "Colonial Brazil" Cambridge University Press 1987 pp. 19, 74, 86, 169–70
The Portuguese colonial administration in Brazil had two objectives that would ensure colonial order and the monopoly of Portugal's wealthiest and largest colony: to keep under control and eradicate all forms of slave rebellion and resistance, such as the Quilombo of Palmares,Schwartz, Stuart B. "Slaves, Peasants, and Rebels" Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois 1992 Chapter 4 View on Google Books and to repress all movements for autonomy or independence, such as the Minas Gerais Conspiracy.MacLachlan, Colin M. "A History of Modern Brazil: The Past Against the Future"; Scholarly Resources Inc. 2003 p. 3 View on Google Books
With the end of the Peninsular War in 1814, the courts of Europe demanded that Queen Maria I and Prince Regent John return to Portugal, deeming it unfit for the head of an ancient European monarchy to reside in a colony. In 1815, to justify continuing to live in Brazil, where the royal court had thrived for six years, the Crown established the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, thus creating a pluricontinental transatlantic monarchic state. However, the leadership in Portugal, resentful of the new status of its larger colony, continued to demand the return of the court to Lisbon (see Liberal Revolution of 1820). In 1821, acceding to the demands of revolutionaries who had taken the city of Porto, John VI departed for Lisbon. There he swore an oath to the new constitution, leaving his son, Prince Pedro de Alcântara, as Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil.Lustosa, pp. 109–110
The Brazilian War of Independence, which had already begun along this process, spread through the northern, northeastern regions and in the Cisplatina province.Diégues 2004, pp. 168, 164, 178 The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824;Diégues 2004, pp. 179–80 Portugal officially recognized Brazilian independence on 29 August 1825.Lustosa, p. 208
On 7 April 1831, worn down by years of administrative turmoil and political dissent with both liberal and conservative sides of politics, including an attempt of republican secession and unreconciled to the way that absolutists in Portugal had given in the succession of King John VI, Pedro I departed for Portugal to Liberal Wars after abdicating the Brazilian throne in favor of his five-year-old son and heir (Dom Pedro II).Lyra (v. 1), p. 17
As the new Emperor could not exert his constitutional powers until he came of age, a regency was set up by the National Assembly.Carvalho 2007, p. 21 In the absence of a charismatic figure who could represent a moderate face of power, during this period a series of localized rebellions took place, such as the Cabanagem in Grão-Pará, the Malê Revolt in Salvador, the Balaiada (Maranhão), the Sabinada (Bahia), and the Ragamuffin War, which began in Rio Grande do Sul and was supported by Giuseppe Garibaldi. These emerged from the provinces' dissatisfaction with the central power, coupled with old and latent social tensions peculiar to a vast, slaveholding and newly independent nation state. This period of internal political and social upheaval, which included the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco, was overcome only at the end of the 1840s, years after the end of the regency, which occurred with the premature coronation of Pedro II in 1841.
During the last phase of the monarchy, internal political debate centered on the issue of slavery. The Atlantic slave trade was abandoned in 1850,Leslie Bethell "The Abolition of the Brazilian Slave Trade: Britain, Brazil and the Slave Trade" Cambridge University Press 1970, "Cambridge Latin American Studides", Chapters 9 to 12. View on Google Books as a result of the British Aberdeen Act and the Eusébio de Queirós Law, but only in May 1888, after a long process of internal mobilization and debate for an ethical and legal dismantling of slavery in the country, was the institution formally abolished with the approval of the Golden Law.Scott, Rebecca and others, The Abolition of Slavery and the Aftermath of Emancipation in Brazil, Duke University Press 1988 Seymour Drescher, Chap. 2: "Brazilian Abolition in Comparative Perspective"
The foreign-affairs policies of the monarchy dealt with issues with the countries of the Southern Cone with whom Brazil had borders. Long after the Cisplatine War that resulted in the independence of Uruguay,Levine, Robert M. "The history of Brazil" Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. 1999, p. 62, View on Google Books Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II: the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the devastating Paraguayan War, the largest war effort in Brazilian history.Lyra (v.1), pp. 164, 225, 272
Although there was no desire among the majority of Brazilians to change the country's form of government, on 15 November 1889, in disagreement with the majority of the Imperial Army officers, as well as with rural and financial elites (for different reasons), the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup. A few days later, the national flag was replaced with a new design that included the national motto " Ordem e Progresso", influenced by positivism. 15 November is now Republic Day, a national holiday.
In relation to its foreign policy, the country in this first republican period maintained a relative balance characterized by a success in resolving border disputes with neighboring countries,David R. Mares; "Violent peace: militarized interstate bargaining in Latin America" Columbia University Press 2001 Chapter 5 p. 125 only broken by the Acre War (1899–1902) and its involvement in World War I (1914–1918),Bradford Burns 1993, p. 305M.Sharp, I. Westwell & J.Westwood; "History of World War I, Volume 1" Marshall Cavendish Corporation 2002, p. 97 followed by a failed attempt to exert a prominent role in the League of Nations;Charles Howard Ellis; "The origin, structure & working of the League of Nations" The LawBook Exchange Ltd 2003 pp. 105, 145 Internally, from the crisis of Encilhamento and the Navy Revolts, a prolonged cycle of financial, political and social instability began until the 1920s, keeping the country besieged by various rebellions, both civilian and military.
Little by little, a cycle of general instability sparked by these crises undermined the regime to such an extent that in the wake of the murder of his running mate, the defeated opposition presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by most of the military, successfully led the Revolution of 1930.Levine; Robert M. & Crocitti; John J. The Brazil Reader: History, Culture, Politics, Duke University Press 1999, IV – The Vargas EraKeen, Benjamin / Haynes, Kate A History of Latin America; Volume 2, Waldsworth Cengage Learning 2004, pp. 356–57 Vargas and the military were supposed to assume power temporarily, but instead closed down Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and replaced the states' governors with his own supporters.McCann; Frank D. Soldiers of the Patria: A History of the Brazilian Army, 1889–1937, Stanford University Press 2004, p. 303 Ibidem Williams 2001
In the 1930s, three attempts to remove Vargas and his supporters from power failed. The first was the Constitutionalist Revolution in 1932, led by São Paulo's oligarchy. The second was a Communist uprising in November 1935, and the last one a putsch attempt by local fascists in May 1938.E. Bradford Burns; A History of Brazil Columbia University Press 1993 p. 352 Dulles, John W.F. Anarchists and Communists in Brazil, 1900–1935 University of Texas Press 2012 Frank M. Colby, Allen L. Churchill, Herbert T. Wade & Frank H. Vizetelly; The New international year book Dodd, Mead & Co. 1989, p. 102 "The Fascist Revolt" The 1935 uprising created a security crisis in which Congress transferred more power to the executive branch. The 1937 coup d'état resulted in the cancellation of the 1938 election and formalized Vargas as dictator, beginning the Estado Novo era. During this period, government brutality and censorship of the press increased.Bourne, Richard Getulio Vargas of Brazil, 1883–1954 C. Knight 1974, p. 77
During World War II, Brazil remained neutral until August 1942, when the country suffered retaliation by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy in a strategic dispute over the South Atlantic, and, therefore, entered the war on the allied side.Scheina, Robert L. Latin America's Wars Vol.II: The Age of the Professional Soldier, 1900–2001. Potomac Books, 2003 Part 9; Ch. 17 – World War II, Brazil, and Mexico, 1942–45Thomas M. Leonard & John F. Bratzel; Latin America during World War II Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Inc. 2007 p. 150Mónica Hirst & Andrew Hurrell; The United States and Brazil: A Long Road of Unmet Expectations, Taylor & Francis Books 2005 pp. 4–5 In addition to its participation in the battle of the Atlantic, Brazil also sent an expeditionary force to fight in the Italian campaign.
With the Allied victory in 1945 and the end of the fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas's position became unsustainable, and he was swiftly overthrown in another military coup, with democracy "reinstated" by the same army that had ended it 15 years earlier.McCann 2004, p. 441 Vargas committed suicide in August 1954 amid a political crisis, after having returned to power by election in 1950.Roett; Riordan Brazil: Politics in a Patrimonial Society, GreenWood Publishing Group 1999, pp. 106–08 Keen & Haynes 2004, pp. 361–62
The new regime was intended to be transitoryGaspari, A Ditadura Envergonhada, pp. 141–42. but gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968.Gaspari, A Ditadura Envergonhada, p. 35. Oppression was not limited to those who resorted to guerrilla tactics to fight the regime, but also reached institutional opponents, artists, journalists and other members of civil society,Richard Young, Odile Cisneros "Historical Dictionary of Latin American Literature and Theater" Scare Crow Press 2011, p. 224, 2nd § View on Google Books inside and outside the country through the infamous "Operation Condor".Laurence Burgorgue-Larsen & Amaya Úbeda de Torres "The Inter-American Court of Human Rights: Case Law and Commentary" Oxford University Press 2011 p. 299 View on Google Books Like other brutal authoritarianism, due to an economic boom, known as the "economic miracle", the regime reached a peak in popularity in the early 1970s.
Slowly, however, the wear and tear of years of dictatorial power had not slowed the repression, even after the defeat of the leftist guerrillas.Bradford Burns 1993, p. 457 The inability to deal with the economic crises of the period and popular pressure made an opening policy inevitable, which from the regime side was led by Generals Ernesto Geisel and Golbery do Couto e Silva. With the enactment of the Amnesty Law in 1979, Brazil began a slow return to democracy, which was completed during the 1980s.
Civilians returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency. He became unpopular during his tenure through failure to control the economic crisis and hyperinflation he inherited from the military regime.Fausto (2005), pp. 464–65. Sarney's unsuccessful government led to the election in 1989 of the almost-unknown Fernando Collor, who was subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992.Fausto (2005), pp. 465, 475. Collor was succeeded by his vice-president, Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso Minister of Finance. In 1994, Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano Real,Skidmore, p. 311. that, after decades of failed economic plans made by previous governments attempting to curb hyperinflation, finally stabilized the Brazilian economy.Fausto (2005), p. 482. Cardoso won the 1994 election, and again in 1998.Fausto (2005), p. 474.
The peaceful transition of power from Cardoso to his main opposition leader, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2006), was seen as proof that Brazil had achieved a long-sought political stability.Fausto (2005), p. 502.Zirin, 2014. Chapter 3 However, sparked by indignation and frustrations accumulated over decades from corruption, police brutality, inefficiencies of the political establishment and public service, numerous peaceful protests erupted in Brazil in the middle of the first term of Dilma Rousseff, who had succeeded Lula after winning election in 2010 and again in 2014 by narrow margins. "Global protest grows as citizens lose faith in politics and the State" article on "the Guardian"Zirin, 2014. Chapter 7 & Conclusion.
Rousseff was impeached by the Brazilian Congress in 2016, halfway into her second term, Article of New York Times about the denouement of Rousseff's impeachment process. and replaced by her Vice-president Michel Temer, who assumed full presidential powers after Rousseff's impeachment was accepted on 31 August. Large street protests for and against her took place during the impeachment process. Article in Financial Times (18 April 2016) about the political ambiance in Brazil on the day vote for the Deputies chamber decision about open an impeachment procedure against President Dilma. 2nd to 4th paragraph. The charges against her were fueled by political and economic crises along with evidence of involvement with politicians from all the primary political parties. In 2017, the Supreme Court requested the investigation of 71 Brazilian lawmakers and nine ministers of President Michel Temer's cabinet who were allegedly linked to the Petrobras corruption scandal. "Brazil supreme court judge orders probe into nine ministers – paper" . Reuters. 11 April 2017. President Temer himself was also accused of corruption. "President Michel Temer of Brazil Is Charged With Corruption" . The New York Times. 26 June 2017. According to a 2018 poll, 62% of the population said that corruption was Brazil's biggest problem.
In the fiercely disputed 2018 elections, the controversial conservative candidate Jair Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) was elected president, winning in the second round against Fernando Haddad, of the Workers Party (PT), with the support of 55.13% of the valid votes. In the early 2020s, Brazil became one of the hardest hit countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving the second-highest death toll worldwide after the United States. In May 2021, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that he would run for a third term in the 2022 Brazilian general election against Bolsonaro. In October 2022, Lula was in first place in the first round, with 48.43% of the support from the electorate, and received 50.90% of the votes in the second round. On 8 January 2023, a week after Lula's inauguration, a mob of Bolsonaro's supporters attacked Brazil's federal government buildings in the capital, Brasília, after several weeks of unrest.
The Brazilian territory also encompasses a number of oceanic , such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago, and the islands of Trindade and Martim Vaz. Its size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil geographically diverse. Including its Atlantic Ocean islands, Brazil lies between latitudes 6°N and 34°S, and longitudes 28° and 74°W.
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and third largest in the Americas, with a total area of , Official Area (In Portuguese) IBGE: Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Retrieved 8 January 2010. including of water. North to South, Brazil is also the longest country in the world, spanning 4,395 km (2,731 mi) from north to south, and the only country in the world that has the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn running through it. It spans four ; from UTC−5 comprising the state of Acre and the westernmost portion of Amazonas, to UTC−4 in the western states, to UTC−3 in the eastern states (the national time) and UTC−2 in the Atlantic islands.
In Brazil, forest cover is around 59% of the total land area, equivalent to 496,619,600 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, down from 588,898,000 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 485,396,000 hectares (ha) and planted forest covered 11,223,600 hectares (ha). Of the naturally regenerating forest, 44% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 30% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For 2015, 56.% of the forest area was reported to be under State ownership and 44% Private property.
Many regions have starkly different . An equatorial climate characterizes much of northern Brazil. There is no real dry season, but there are some variations in the period of the year when most rain falls. Temperatures average , with more significant temperature variation between night and day than between seasons. Over central Brazil, rainfall is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna climate. This region is as extensive as the Amazon basin but has a very different climate as it lies farther south at a higher altitude. In the interior northeast, seasonal rainfall is even more extreme. South of Bahia, near the coasts, and more southerly most of the state of São Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, with rain falling throughout the year. The south enjoys subtropical conditions, with cool winters and average annual temperatures not exceeding ; winter frosts and snowfall are not rare in the highest areas.
The semiarid climatic region generally receives less than of rain, most of which generally falls in a period of three to five months of the year and occasionally less than this, creating long periods of drought. Brazil's 1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the worst in Brazil's history, "Drought, Smallpox, and Emergence of Leishmania braziliensis in Northeastern Brazil" . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). caused approximately half a million deaths. "Ó Gráda, C.: Famine: A Short History" . Princeton University Press. A similarly devastating drought occurred in 1915. "Inland fishery enhancements" . FAO. In 2024, for the first time, "a drought has covered all the way from the North to the country’s Southeast". It is the strongest drought in Brazil since the beginning of measurement in the 1950s, covering almost 60% of the country's territory. The drought is linked to deforestation and climate change.
Climate change in Brazil is causing higher temperatures and longer-lasting heatwaves, changing precipitation patterns, more intense wildfires and heightened fire risk. Brazil's hydropower, agriculture and urban water supplies will be affected. Brazil's , and the Amazon, are particularly at risk to climate change. At worst, large areas of the Amazon basin could turn into savannah, with severe consequences for global climate and local livelihoods. Extreme weather events like droughts and flash floods are causing annual losses of around R$13 billion (US$2.6 billion), equivalent to 0.1% of the country's 2022 GDP. Climate impacts could exacerbate poverty.
Brazil's greenhouse gas emissions per person are higher than the global average, and Brazil is among the top 10 highest emitting countries. Greenhouse gas emissions by Brazil are over 4% of the annual world total. In 2024 Brazil revised its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), setting a goal to cut greenhouse emissions by 59% to 67% compared to 2005 levels by 2035. It has an indicative target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2060 if the country receives 10 billion dollars per year.
The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to . These ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço mountains and the Serra do Mar. In the north, the Guiana Shield form a major drainage divide, separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty into the Orinoco River system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in Brazil is the Pico da Neblina at , and the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean.
Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world's most extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic. Major rivers include the Amazon River (the world's second-longest river and the largest in terms of volume of water), the Paraná and its major tributary the Iguazu River (which includes the Iguazu Falls), the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu River, Madeira River and Tapajós rivers.
Brazil's large territory comprises different ecosystems, such as the Amazon rainforest, recognized as having the greatest Biodiversity in the world, with the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado sustaining the greatest biodiversity. In the south, the Araucaria moist forests grow under temperate conditions. The rich wildlife of Brazil reflects the variety of natural habitats. Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four million, mostly invertebrates. Larger mammals include carnivores Cougar, , , rare , and , and herbivores peccary, , , , and . Deer are plentiful in the south, and many species of New World monkeys are found in the northern Rainforest.
More than one-fifth of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has been completely destroyed, and more than 70 mammals are endangered. The threat of extinction comes from several sources, including deforestation and poaching. Extinction is even more problematic in the Atlantic Forest, where nearly 93% of the forest has been cleared. Of the 202 endangered animals in Brazil, 171 are in the Atlantic Forest. The Amazon rainforest has been under direct threat of deforestation since the 1970s because of rapid economic and demographic expansion. Extensive legal and Illegal logging logging destroy the size of a small country per year, and with it a diverse series of species through habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation.USDA Forest Service website, Forest Service International Programs: Brazil , retrieved February 2007. Since 1970, over of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared by logging.
In 2017, preserved native vegetation occupied 61% of the Brazilian territory. Agriculture occupied only 8% of the national territory and pastures 19.7%. For comparison, in 2019, although 43% of the entire European continent has forests, only 3% of the total forest area in Europe is of native forest. Brazil has a strong interest in conservation, as its agriculture sector directly depends on its forests.
Legislative houses in each political entity are the main source of law in Brazil. The National Congress is the Federation's bicameral legislature, consisting of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. Judiciary authorities exercise jurisdictional duties almost exclusively. In 2021, the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index categorized Brazil as a "flawed democracy", ranking 46th in the report, and Freedom House classified it as a Free World at Freedom in the World report.
The political-administrative organization of the Federative Republic of Brazil comprises the Union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities. The Union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities, are the "spheres of government". The federation is set on five fundamental principles: sovereignty, citizenship, dignity of human beings, the social values of labor and freedom of enterprise, and political pluralism.
The classic tripartite branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial under a checks and balances system) are formally established by the Constitution. The executive and legislative are organized independently in all three spheres of government, while the judiciary is organized only at the federal and state and Federal District spheres. All members of the executive and legislative branches are directly elected.
For most of its democratic history, Brazil has had a multi-party system, with proportional representation. Voting is compulsory for the literate between 18 and 70 years old and optional for illiterates and those between 16 and 18 or beyond 70. The country has around 30 registered political parties. Twenty political parties are represented in Congress. It is common for politicians to switch parties, and thus the proportion of congressional seats held by particular parties changes regularly.
The legal system is based on the Federal Constitution, promulgated on 5 October 1988, and the fundamental law of Brazil. All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules.José Afonso da Silva, Curso de Direito Constitucional Positivo (Malheiros, 2004; ), p. 46. , there have been 124 amendments. The highest court is the Supreme Federal Court. States have their own constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution.Silva, Curso de Direito Constitucional Positivo, p. 592. Municipalities and the Federal District have "organic laws" (leis orgânicas), which act in a similar way to constitutions. Legislative entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary and executive bodies may enact legal norms. Jurisdiction is administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal judgments. There are also specialized military, labor and electoral courts.
Numbering close to 236,000 active personnel, the Brazilian Army has the largest number of armored vehicles in South America, including armored transports and battle tank. The states' Military Police and the Military Firefighters Corps are described as an ancillary forces of the Army by the constitution, but are under the control of each state's governor.
Brazil's navy once operated some of the most powerful warships in the world with the two , sparking a naval arms race between Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.Scheina (1987), p. 81. Today, it is a green-water navy force and has a group of specialized elite in retaking ships and naval facilities, GRUMEC, unit specially trained to protect Brazilian oil platforms along its coast. , it is the only navy in Latin America that operates a helicopter carrier, NAM Atlântico and one of twelve navies in the world to operate or have one under construction.
Brazil's foreign policy is a by-product of the country's position as a regional power in Latin America, a leader among developing countries, and an emerging world power. U.S. Congressional Report on Brazil United States Congress. Retrieved on 23 June 2009. Brazilian foreign policy has generally been based on the principles of multilateralism, peaceful dispute settlement, and non-intervention in the affairs of other countries.Georges D. Landau, "The Decision-making Process in Foreign Policy: The Case of Brazil", Center for Strategic and International Studies: Washington DC: March 2003 Brazil is a founding member state of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth, an international organization and political association of Lusophone nations.
An increasingly well-developed tool of Brazil's foreign policy is providing aid as a donor to other developing countries.Cabral and Weinstock 2010. Brazil: an emerging aid player (). London: Overseas Development Institute Brazil does not just use its growing economic strength to provide financial aid, but it also provides high levels of expertise and most importantly of all, a quiet non-confrontational diplomacy to improve governance levels. Total aid is estimated to be around $1 billion per year, which includes. In addition, Brazil already managed a peacekeeping mission in Haiti ($350 million) and makes in-kind contributions to the World Food Programme ($300 million). The scale of this aid places it on par with China and India. The Brazilian South-South aid has been described as a "global model in waiting".Cabral, Lidia 2010. Brazil's development cooperation with the South: a global model in waiting (). London: Overseas Development Institute
The country has high levels of violent crime, such as gun violence and homicides. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the number of 32 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates of homicide of the world. The number considered acceptable by the WHO is about 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. In 2018, Brazil had a record 63,880 murders. However, there are differences between the crime rates in the Brazilian states. While in São Paulo the homicide rate registered in 2013 was 10.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, in Alagoas it was 64.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.
Brazil also has high levels of incarceration. It had the third largest prison population in the world of approximately 700,000 prisoners as of June 2014, which put it only behind the United States (2,228,424) and China (1,701,344). The high number of prisoners eventually overloaded the Brazilian prison system, leading to a shortfall of about 200,000 accommodations.
Municipalities, as the states, have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the federal and state government. Each has an elected mayor and legislative body, but no separate Court of Law. Indeed, a Court of Law organized by the state can encompass many municipalities in a single justice administrative division called comarca (county).
Brazil's constitution also provides for the creation of federal territories, which are administrative divisions directly controlled by the federal government. However, there are currently no federal territories in the country, as the 1988 Constitution abolished the last three: Amapá and Roraima (which gained statehood status) and Fernando de Noronha, which became a state district of Pernambuco.
Brazil's diversified economy includes agriculture, industry and a wide range of services. The large service sector accounts for about 72.7% of total GDP, followed by the industrial sector (20.7%), while the agriculture sector is by far the smallest, making up 6.6% of total GDP.
Brazil is one of the largest producers of various agricultural commodities, and also has a large cooperative sector that provides 50% of the food in the country. It has been the world's largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, soy, coffee and orange; is one of the top fve producers of maize, cotton, lemon, tobacco, pineapple, banana, beans, coconut, watermelon and papaya; and is one of the top 10 world producers of Cocoa bean, cashew, mango, rice, tomato, sorghum, tangerine, avocado, persimmon, and guava, among others. Regarding livestock, it is one of the five largest producers of chicken meat, beef, pork and cow's milk in the world. In the mining sector, Brazil is among the largest producers of iron ore, copper, gold, bauxite, manganese, tin, niobium, and nickel. In terms of precious stones, Brazil is the world's largest producer of amethyst, topaz, agate and one of the main producers of tourmaline, emerald, aquamarine, garnet and opal. The country is a major exporter of soy, iron ore, pulp (cellulose), maize, beef, chicken meat, soybean meal, sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, orange juice, footwear, airplanes, cars, vehicle parts, gold, ethanol and semi-finished iron, among other products.
Brazil is the world's 24th-largest exporter and 26th-largest importer . China is its largest trading partner, accounting for 32% of the total trade. Other large trading partners include the United States, Argentina, the Netherlands and Canada. Its automotive industry is the eighth-largest in the world. In the food industry, Brazil was the second-largest exporter of processed foods in the world in 2019. The country was the second-largest producer of pulp in the world and the eighth-largest producer of paper in 2016. In the footwear industry, Brazil was the fourth-largest producer in 2019. It was also the ninth-largest producer of steel in the world. In 2018, the chemical industry of Brazil was the eighth-largest in the world. Although it was among the five largest world producers in 2013, Brazil's textile industry is very little integrated into world trade.
The tertiary sector (trade and services) represented 75.8% of the country's GDP in 2018, according to the IBGE. The service sector was responsible for 60% of GDP and trade for 13%. It covers commerce, transport, education, social and health services, research and development, sports activities, etc. Micro and small businesses represent 30% of the country's GDP. In the commercial sector, for example, they represent 53% of the GDP within the activities of the sector.
Natural areas are its most popular tourism product, a combination of ecotourism with leisure and recreation, mainly sun and beach, and adventure travel, as well as cultural tourism. Among the most popular destinations are the Amazon Rainforest, beaches and dunes in the Northeast Region, the Pantanal in the Center-West Region, beaches at Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, cultural tourism in Minas Gerais and business trips to São Paulo.
In terms of the 2015 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which is a measurement of the factors that make it attractive to develop business in the travel and tourism industry of individual countries, Brazil ranked in the 28th place at the world's level, third in the Americas, after Canada and United States. See Table 4, pp. 18–19 and Country/Economy Profile: Brazil, pp. 116–17. Domestic tourism is a key market segment for the tourism industry in Brazil. In 2005, 51 million Brazilian nationals made ten times more trips than foreign tourists and spent five times more money than their international counterparts. The main destination states in 2023 were São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul. The main source of tourists for the entire country is São Paulo state. In terms of tourism revenues, the top earners by state were São Paulo and Bahia. For 2005, the three main trip purposes were visiting friends and family (53.1%), sun and beach (40.8%), and cultural tourism (12.5%).
The Brazilian Space Agency has the most advanced space program in Latin America, with significant resources to launch vehicles, and manufacture of satellites. The country develops and aircraft, as well as being involved in space research, having a Vehicle Launch Center Light and being the only country in the Southern Hemisphere to integrate a team building the well-known International Space Station (ISS). NASA Signs International Space Station Agreement With Brazil NASA.
The country is also a pioneer in the search for oil in deep water, from where it extracts 73% of its reserves. Uranium is enriched at the Resende Nuclear Fuel Factory, mostly for research purposes (as Brazil obtains 88% of its electricity from hydroelectricity) and the country's first nuclear submarine is expected to be launched in 2029.
Brazil is one of the three countries in Latin America with an operational Synchrotron Laboratory, a research facility on physics, chemistry, material science and life sciences, and Brazil is the only Latin American country to have a semiconductor company with its own fabrication plant, the CEITEC. According to the Global Information Technology Report 2009–2010 of the World Economic Forum, Brazil is the world's 61st largest developer of information technology. Brazil was ranked 50th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024, up from 66th in 2019.World Intellectual Property Organization (2025). 9789280536812, World Intellectual Property Organization. . ISBN 9789280536812
Among the most renowned Brazilian inventors are priests Bartolomeu de Gusmão, Landell de Moura and Francisco João de Azevedo, besides Alberto Santos-Dumont, Evaristo Conrado Engelberg, Manuel Dias de Abreu,Abreu, Manuel de, pag. 17 – Grande Enciclopédia Universal – edição de 1980 – Ed.Amazonas Andreas Pavel and Nélio José Nicolai. Exposição destaca centenário do CEFET-MG Sítio do Cefet-MG, acessado em 13 de novembro de 2010 Brazilian science is represented by the likes of César Lattes (Brazilian physicist Pathfinder of Pion), Mário Schenberg (considered the greatest theoretical physicist of Brazil), José Leite Lopes (the only Brazilian physicist holder of the UNESCO Science Prize), Artur Avila (the first Latin American winner of the Fields Medal) Brasileiro ganha a Medalha Fields, considerada o "Nobel da Matemática" . and Fritz Müller (pioneer in factual support of the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin).West, David A. 2003. Fritz Müller: a naturalist in Brazil. Blacksburg: Pocahontas Press
At the end of 2021 Brazil was the 2nd country in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (109.4 GW) and biomass (15.8 GW), the 7th country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21.1 GW) and the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13.0 GW)—on track to also become one of the top 10 in the world in solar energy. At the end of 2021, Brazil was the 4th largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), behind only China, the United States and Germany, and the 11th largest producer of solar energy in the world (16.8 TWh).Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser, Solar Power Generation
The main characteristic of the Brazilian energy matrix is that it is much more renewable than that of the world. While in 2019, the world matrix was only 14% made up of renewable energy, Brazil's was at 45%. Petroleum and oil products made up 34.3% of the matrix; sugar cane derivatives, 18%; hydraulic energy, 12.4%; natural gas, 12.2%; firewood and charcoal, 8.8%; varied renewable energies, 7%; mineral coal, 5.3%; nuclear, 1.4%, and other non-renewable energies, 0.6%.
In the electric energy matrix, the difference between Brazil and the world is even greater: while the world only had 25% of renewable electric energy in 2019, Brazil had 83%. The Brazilian electric matrix was composed of: hydraulic energy, 64.9%; biomass, 8.4%; wind energy, 8.6%; solar energy, 1%; natural gas, 9.3%; oil products, 2%; nuclear, 2.5%; coal and derivatives, 3.3%. Brazil has the largest electricity sector in Latin America. Its capacity at the end of 2021 was 181,532 MW.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[33] National Agency of Energy
As for Petroleum, the Brazilian government has embarked on a program over the decades to reduce dependence on imported oil, which previously accounted for more than 70% of the country's oil needs. Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006–2007. In 2021, the country closed the year as the 7th oil producer in the world, with an average of close to three million barrels per day, becoming an exporter of the product.
Brazil's railway system has been declining since 1945, when emphasis shifted to highway construction. The country's total railway track length was in 2015, as compared with in 1970, making it the ninth largest network in the world. Most of the railway system belonged to the RFFSA (RFFSA), which was privatized in 2007. "OPrincipais ferrovias". Ministerio dos Transportes The São Paulo Metro began operating on 14 September 1974 as the first underground transit system in Brazil.
There are about 2,500 airports in Brazil, including landing fields: the second-largest number in the world, after the United States. "Ociosidade atinge 70% dos principais aeroportos". O Globo, 12 August 2007. São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, near São Paulo, is the largest and busiest airport with nearly 43 million passengers annually, while handling the vast majority of commercial traffic for the country.
For freight transport, waterways are of importance. The industrial zones of Manaus can be reached only by means of the Solimões–Amazonas waterway ( in length, with a minimum depth of ). The country also has of waterways. Country Comparison to the World: Gini Index – Brazil The World Factbook. Retrieved on 3 April 2012. Coastal shipping links widely separated parts of the country. Bolivia and Paraguay have been given free ports at Santos. Of the 36 deep-water ports, Santos, Itajaí, Rio Grande, Paranaguá, Rio de Janeiro, Sepetiba, Vitória, Suape, Manaus and São Francisco do Sul are the most important. "Mercado Brasileiro Terminais de Contêineres", Santos Brasil. Bulk carriers have to wait up to 18 days before being serviced; container ships take 36.3 hours on average.
The first census in Brazil was carried out in 1872 and recorded a population of 9,930,478. "Brazil population reaches 190.8 million" . Brasil.gov.br. From 1880 to 1930, 4 million Europeans arrived. "Shaping Brazil: The Role of International Migration". Migration Policy Institute. Brazil's population increased significantly between 1940 and 1970, because of a decline in the mortality rate, even though the birth rate underwent a slight decline. In the 1940s the annual population growth rate was 2.4%, rising to 3.0% in the 1950s and remaining at 2.9% in the 1960s, as life expectancy rose from 44 to 54 yearsJosé Alberto Magno de Carvalho, "Crescimento populacional e estrutura demográfica no Brasil" Belo Horizonte: UFMG/Cedeplar, 2004 (PDF file), p. 5. and to 72.6 years in 2007. It has been steadily falling since the 1960s, from 3.04% per year between 1950 and 1960 to 1.05% in 2008 and is expected to fall to a negative value of –0.29% by 2050 thus completing the demographic transition.Magno de Carvalho, "Crescimento populacional e estrutura demográfica no Brasil", pp. 7–8.
In 2008, the illiteracy rate was 11.48%.PNAD 2008, IBGE. "Pessoas de 5 anos ou mais de idade por situação, sexo, alfabetização e grupos de idade e grupos de idade".
Since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, considerable genetic mixing between Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans has taken place in all regions of the country:
From the 19th century, Brazil opened its borders to immigration. About five million people from over 60 countries migrated to Brazil between 1808 and 1972, most of them of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German Brazilian, English, Ukrainian, Polish Brazilian, Jewish Brazilian, Afro-Brazilian, Armenians, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean Brazilian and Arab Brazilian origin., Table 2, p. 74. Zirin, 2014. Chapter 2, Section "The Beginning of the 'Mosaic' ". Brazil has the second-largest Jewish community in both Latin and South America after Argentina making up 0.06% of its population. Outside of the Arab world, Brazil also has the largest Arab diaspora of Arab ancestry in the world, with 15–20 million people. According to Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil is home to a Lebanese diaspora of 7 million to 10 million, surpassing the population of Lebanese individuals residing in Lebanon.
Brazilian society is more markedly divided by social class lines, although a high income disparity is found between race groups, so racism and classism often overlap. The brown population (officially called Pardo Brazilians in Portuguese, also colloquially )Coelho (1996), p. 268.Vesentini (1988), p. 117. is a broad category that includes (assimilated Amerindians in general, and descendants of Whites and Natives), Mulatto (descendants of primarily Whites and Afro-Brazilians) and Zambo (descendants of Afro-Brazilians and Natives).Adas, Melhem Panorama geográfico do Brasil, 4th ed (São Paulo: Moderna, 2004), p. 268 Azevedo (1971), pp. 2–3.Moreira (1981), p. 108. Higher percents of Blacks, mulattoes and tri-racials can be found in the eastern coast of the Northeastern region from Bahia to ParaíbaAzevedo (1971), pp. 74–75. and also in northern Maranhão, Enciclopédia Barsa, vol. 10 (Rio de Janeiro: Encyclopædia Britannica do Brasil, 1987), p. 355.Azevedo (1971), p. 74. southern Minas GeraisAzevedo (1971), p. 161. and eastern Rio de Janeiro.
People of considerable Amerindian ancestry form the majority of the population in the Northern, Northeastern and Center-Western regions. Enciclopédia Barsa, vol. 4, pp. 254–55, 258, 265. In 2007, the National Indian Foundation estimated that Brazil has 67 different uncontacted tribes, up from their estimate of 40 in 2005. Brazil is believed to have the largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world. "In Amazonia, Defending the Hidden Tribes", The Washington Post (8 July 2007).
Religious diversity in Brazil developed from the meeting of the Roman Catholic Church with the religious traditions of enslaved African peoples and indigenous peoples. This confluence of faiths during the Portuguese colonization of Brazil led to the development of a diverse array of syncretistic practices within the overarching umbrella of Brazilian Catholic Church, characterized by traditional Portuguese festivities.
Religious pluralism increased during the 20th century, and the Protestant community had grown to include over 22% of the population by 2010—partly due to a mixture of American missionary and government influence. The most common Protestant denominations are Evangelicalism Pentecostalism ones. Other Protestant branches with a notable presence in the country include the Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutheranism and the Calvinism. In recent decades, Protestantism, particularly in forms of Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, has spread in Brazil, while the proportion of Catholics had dropped significantly during the 2010s. See drop-down essay on "The Growth of Religious Pluralism" As they have spread throughout Brazil, many have even been deeply involved in Brazilian and international politics, and Evangelical Protestant influence has been implicated in the 2022 Brazilian coup plot. Since 2022, Evangelicals and Catholics have considered begun reconsidering religion as a political factor.
After Protestantism, individuals professing no religion are also a significant group, having exceeded 8% of the population according to the 2010 census. The cities of Boa Vista, Salvador, and Porto Velho have the greatest proportion of Irreligion residents in Brazil. Teresina, Fortaleza, and Florianópolis were the most Roman Catholic in the country. Greater Rio de Janeiro, not including the city proper, is the most irreligious and least Roman Catholic Brazilian periphery, while Greater Porto Alegre and Greater Fortaleza are on the opposite sides of the lists, respectively.
In October 2009, the Brazilian Senate approved and enacted by the President of Brazil in February 2010, an agreement with the Holy See, in which the Legal Statute of the Catholic Church in Brazil is recognized.
Despite all the progress made since the creation of the universal health care system in 1988, there are still several public health problems in Brazil. In 2006, the main points to be solved were the high infant (2.51%) and maternal mortality rates (73.1 deaths per 1000 births).
The number of deaths from noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (151.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) and cancer (72.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants), also has a considerable impact on the health of the Brazilian population. Finally, external but preventable factors such as car accidents, violence and suicide caused 14.9% of all deaths in the country. The Brazilian health system was ranked 125th among the 191 countries evaluated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000.
According to the IBGE, in 2019, the literacy rate of the population was 93.4%, meaning that 11.3 million (6.6% of population) people are still illiterate in the country, with some states such as Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina reaching around 97% of literacy rate; functional illiteracy has reached 21.6% of the population. Illiteracy is higher in the Northeast, where 13.87% of the population is illiterate, while the South, has 3.3% of its population illiterate.
Brazil's private institutions tend to be more exclusive and offer better quality education, so many high-income families send their children there. The result is a segregated educational system that reflects extreme income disparities and reinforces social inequality. However, efforts to change this are making impacts. The University of São Paulo is often considered the best in Brazil and Latin America. Of the top 20 Latin American universities, eight are Brazilian. Most of them are public. Attending an institution of higher education is required by Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education. Kindergarten, elementary and medium education are required of all students.
Brazilian Portuguese has had its own development, mostly similar to 16th-century Central and Southern dialects of European Portuguese (despite a very substantial number of Portuguese colonial settlers, and more recent immigrants, coming from Northern regions, and in minor degree Portuguese Macaronesia), with a few influences from the Amerindian and African languages, especially and Bantu languages restricted to the vocabulary only. As a result, the language is somewhat different, mostly in phonology, from the language of Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries (the dialects of the other countries, partly because of the more recent end of Portuguese colonialism in these regions, have a closer connection to contemporary European Portuguese). These differences are comparable to those between American English and British English.
The 2002 sign language law LEI Nº 10.436, DE 24 DE ABRIL DE 2002. Presidência da República, Casa Civil, Subchefia para Assuntos Jurídicos. Retrieved on 19 May 2012. requires government authorities and public agencies to accept and provide information in Língua Brasileira dos Sinais or "LIBRAS", the Brazilian Sign Language, while a 2005 presidential edict Brazilian decree nº 5626, 22 December 2005. Planalto.gov.br (23 December 2005). Retrieved on 19 May 2012. extends this to require teaching of the language as a part of the education and speech and language pathology curricula. LIBRAS teachers, instructors and translators are recognized professionals. Schools and health services must provide access ("inclusion") to Deaf community.
Minority languages are spoken throughout the nation. One hundred and eighty Amerindian languages are spoken in remote areas and a significant number of other languages are spoken by immigrants and their descendants. In the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Nheengatu (a currently endangered creole language with Old Tupi lexicon and Portuguese-based grammar that, together with its southern relative língua geral paulista, once was a major lingua franca in Brazil), (2025). 9783110258035, Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110258035 Baniwa and Tucano languages had been granted co-official status with Portuguese.
There are significant communities of German (mostly the Brazilian Hunsrückisch, a High German language dialect) and Italian (mostly the Talian dialect, a Venetian dialect) origins in the Southern and Southeastern regions, whose ancestors' native languages were carried along to Brazil, and which, still alive there, are influenced by the Portuguese language. Talian is officially a historic patrimony of Rio Grande do Sul, and two German dialects possess co-official status in a few municipalities. Italian is also recognized as ethnic language in Santa Teresa and Vila Velha, in the state of Espírito Santo, and is taught as mandatory second language at school.
Some aspects of Brazilian culture were influenced by the contributions of Italian, German Brazilian and other European as well as Japanese, Jewish Brazilian and Arab Brazilian immigrants who arrived in large numbers in the South and Southeast of Brazil during the 19th and 20th centuries. The indigenous Amerindians influenced Brazil's language and cuisine; and the Africans influenced language, cuisine, music, dance and religion.
Brazilian art has developed since the 16th century into different styles that range from Baroque (the dominant style in Brazil until the early 19th century)Leandro Karnal, Teatro da fé: Formas de representação religiosa no Brasil e no México do século XVI, São Paulo, Editora Hucitec, 1998; available on fflch.usp.br "The Brazilian Baroque", Encyclopaedia Itaú Cultural to Romanticism, Modern art, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism and Abstract art. Brazilian cinema dates back to the birth of the medium in the late 19th century and has gained a new level of international acclaim since the 1960s.
The colonial architecture of Brazil dates to the early 16th century, when Brazil was first explored, conquered and settled by the Portuguese. The Portuguese built architecture familiar to them in Europe in their aim to colonize Brazil. They built Portuguese colonial architecture, which included churches and civic architecture, including houses and forts, in Brazilian cities and the countryside.
During the 19th century, Brazilian architecture saw the introduction of more European styles to Brazil, such as Neoclassical and Gothic Revival architecture. This was usually mixed with Brazilian influences from their own heritage.Guimaraens, Cêça de. Arquitetura . Portal do Ministério das Relações Exteriores. In the 1950s modernist architecture was introduced when Brasília was built as a new federal capital in the interior of Brazil to help develop the interior. The architect Oscar Niemeyer idealized and built government buildings, churches and civic buildings in the modernist style.Claro, Mauro. "Ambientes modernos. A casa modernista da Rua Santa Cruz, de Gregori Warchavchik, e outras casas da modernidade". In: Drops, 2008; 09 (025.03)
Popular music since the late eighteenth century, samba was considered the most typical and on the UNESCO cultural heritage list. Samba-reggae, Maracatu, Frevo and Afoxê are four music traditions that have been popularized by their appearance in the annual Brazilian Carnivals. Capoeira is usually played with its own music referred to as capoeira music, which is usually considered to be a call-and-response type of folk music. Forró is a type of folk music prominent during the Festa Junina in northeastern Brazil. Jack A. Draper III, a professor of Portuguese at the University of Missouri, argues that Forró was used as a way to subdue feelings of nostalgia for a rural lifestyle.
Choro is a popular musical instrumental style. Its origins are in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro. The style often has a fast and happy rhythm, characterized by subtle modulations and full of syncopation and counterpoint. Bossa nova is also a well-known style of Brazilian music developed and popularized in the 1950s and 1960s. The phrase "bossa nova" means literally 'new trend'. A lyrical fusion of samba and jazz, bossa nova acquired a large following starting in the 1960s. Some international Brazilian music artists are, for example: Carmen Miranda, Tom Jobim, João Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, Eumir Deodato, Kaoma, Sepultura, Olodum.
Brazil produced significant works in Romanticism—novelists such as Joaquim Manuel de Macedo and José de Alencar wrote novels about love and pain. Alencar, in his long career, also treated indigenous people as heroes in the Indigenist novels The Guarani, Iracema and Ubirajara. "Brazilian Literature: An Introduction". Embassy of Brasil – Ottawa. Visited on 2 November 2009. Machado de Assis, one of his contemporaries, wrote in virtually all genres and continues to gain international prestige from critics worldwide.Antonio Candido. (1970) Vários escritos. São Paulo: Duas Cidades. p. 18Caldwell, Helen (1970) Machado de Assis: The Brazilian Master and his Novels. Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, University of California Press.Fernandez, Oscar Machado de Assis: The Brazilian Master and His Novels The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Apr. 1971), pp. 255–56
Brazilian Modernism, evidenced by the Modern Art Week in 1922, was concerned with a nationalist avant-garde literature,Beatriz Mugayar Kühl, Arquitetura do ferro e arquitetura ferroviária em São Paulo: reflexões sobre a sua preservação, p. 202. Atelie Editorial, 1998. while Post-Modernism brought a generation of distinct poets such as João Cabral de Melo Neto, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Vinicius de Moraes, Cora Coralina, Graciliano Ramos, Cecília Meireles, and internationally known writers dealing with universal and regional subjects such as Jorge Amado, João Guimarães Rosa, Clarice Lispector and Manuel Bandeira.Daniel Balderston and Mike Gonzalez, Encyclopedia of Latin American and Caribbean Literature, 1900–2003, p. 288. Routledge, 2004.Sayers, Portugal and Brazil in Transitn, "Literature". U of Minnesota Press, 1 January 1999.Marshall C. Eakin and Paulo Roberto de Almeida, Envisioning Brazil: A Guide to Brazilian Studies in the United States: "Literature, Culture and Civilization". University of Wisconsin Press, 31 October 2005.
Brazil's most significant literary award is the Camões Prize, which it shares with the rest of the Lusophone. As of 2016, Brazil has eleven recipients of the prize. Brazil also holds its own literary academy, the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a non-profit cultural organization aimed at perpetuating the care of the national language and literature.
During the 1960s, the Cinema Novo movement rose to prominence with directors such as Glauber Rocha, Nelson Pereira dos Santos, Paulo Cesar Saraceni and Arnaldo Jabor. Rocha's films Deus e o Diabo na Terra do Sol (1964) and Terra em Transe (1967) are considered to be some of the greatest and most influential in Brazilian film history.
During the 1990s, Brazil saw a surge of critical and commercial success with films such as O Quatrilho (Fábio Barreto, 1995), O Que É Isso, Companheiro? (Bruno Barreto, 1997) and Central do Brasil (Walter Salles, 1998), all of which were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the latter receiving a Best Actress nomination for Fernanda Montenegro. The 2002 crime film City of God, directed by Fernando Meirelles, was critically acclaimed, scoring 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, being placed in Roger Ebert's Best Films of the Decade list and receiving four Academy Awards nominations in 2004, including Best Director. Notable film festivals in Brazil include the São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro International Film Festivals and the Gramado Festival.
The French Artistic Mission arrived in Brazil in 1816 proposing the creation of an art academy modeled after the respected Académie des Beaux-Arts, with graduation courses both for artists and craftsmen for activities such as modeling, decorating, carpentry and others and bringing artists such as Jean-Baptiste Debret.
Upon the creation of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, new artistic movements spread across the country during the 19th century and later the event called Modern Art Week broke with academic tradition in 1922 and started a nationalist trend which was influenced by modernist arts.
Among the best-known Brazilian painters are Ricardo do Pilar and Manuel da Costa Ataíde (baroque and rococo), Victor Meirelles, Pedro Américo and Almeida Júnior (romanticism and realism), Anita Malfatti, Ismael Nery, Lasar Segall, Emiliano di Cavalcanti, Vicente do Rego Monteiro, and Tarsila do Amaral (expressionism, surrealism and cubism), Aldo Bonadei, José Pancetti and Cândido Portinari (modernism).Sevcenko, Nicolau. Pindorama revisitada: cultura e sociedade em tempos de virada. Série Brasil cidadão. Editora Peirópolis, 2000. pp. 39–47
Already in the early 20th century there was the presence of theaters, entrepreneurs and actor companies. In 1940, Paschoal Carlos Magno and his student's theater, the comedians group and the Italian actors Adolfo Celi, Ruggero Jacobbi and Aldo Calvo, founders of the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia, renewed the Brazilian theater. From the 1960s, it was attended by a theater dedicated to social and religious issues. The most prominent authors at this stage were Jorge Andrade and Ariano Suassuna.
A typical meal consists mostly of rice and beans with beef, salad, french fries and a fried egg. Often, it is mixed with cassava flour (farofa). Fried potatoes, fried cassava, fried banana, fried meat and fried cheese are very often eaten in lunch and served in most typical restaurants. Popular snacks are pastel (a fried pastry); coxinha (a variation of chicken croquete); pão de queijo (cheese bread and cassava flour / tapioca); pamonha (corn and milk paste); sfiha (a variation of Lebanese pastry); kibbeh (from Arabic cuisine); empanada (pastry) and empada, little salt pies filled with shrimps or heart of palm.
Brazil has a variety of desserts such as (chocolate fudge balls), bolo de rolo (roll cake with goiabada), cocada (a coconut sweet), (coconut truffles and clove) and Romeu e Julieta (cheese with goiabada). Peanuts are used to make paçoca, rapadura and pé-de-moleque. Local common fruits such as açaí, cupuaçu, mango, papaya, cocoa bean, cashew, guava, orange, lime, passionfruit, pineapple, and Spondias are turned in and used to make , and ice cream.Freyre, Gilberto. Açúcar. Uma Sociologia do Doce, com Receitas de Bolos e Doces do Nordeste do Brasil. São Paulo, Companhia das Letras, 1997.
Radio broadcasting began on 7 September 1922, with a speech by then President Pessoa, and was formalized on 20 April 1923 with the creation of the "Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro". Television in Brazil began officially on 18 September 1950, with the founding of TV Tupi by Assis Chateaubriand. Since then, television has grown in the country, creating large commercial broadcast networks such as Rede Globo, SBT, RecordTV, Bandeirantes and RedeTV. Today it is the most important factor in the popular culture of Brazilian society, as indicated by research showing that as much as 67% of the general population follow the same daily telenovela broadcast.
By the mid-1960s, Brazilian universities had installed mainframe computers from IBM and Burroughs Large Systems. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Brazilian government restricted foreign to protect the local manufacturing of computers. In the 1980s, Brazil produced half of the computers sold in the country. By 2009, the mobile phone and Internet use in Brazil was the fifth largest in the world. (2025). 9781000878752, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781000878752
In May 2010, the Brazilian government launched TV Brasil Internacional, an international television station, initially broadcasting to 49 countries. Commercial television channels broadcast internationally include Globo Internacional, RecordTV Internacional and Band Internacional.
Volleyball, basketball, auto racing and martial arts also has large audiences. The Brazil men's national volleyball team, for example, currently holds the titles of the World League, World Grand Champions Cup, World Championship and the World Cup. In auto racing, three Brazilian drivers have won the Formula One world championship eight times. The country has also produced significant achievements in other sports such as sailing, swimming, tennis, surfing, skateboarding, MMA, gymnastics, boxing, judo, athletics and table tennis.
Some sport variations have their origins in Brazil: beach soccer, futsal (indoor football) and footvolley emerged in Brazil as variations of football. In martial arts, Brazilians developed Capoeira, Vale tudo and Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
Brazil has hosted several high-profile international sporting events, such as the 1950 FIFA World Cup, and recently has hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup, 2019 Copa América and 2021 Copa América . The São Paulo circuit, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, hosts the annual Grand Prix of Brazil. São Paulo organized the IV Pan American Games in 1963, and Rio de Janeiro hosted the XV Pan American Games in 2007. (2025). 9781450422413, Human Kinetics – College of Business at Ohio University. . ISBN 9781450422413 On 2 October 2009, Rio de Janeiro was selected to host the 2016 Olympic Games and 2016 Paralympic Games, making it the first South American city to host the games "Olympics 2016: Tearful Pele and weeping Lula greet historic win for Rio", The Guardian, 2 October 2009. and second in Latin America, after Mexico City. Furthermore, the country hosted the FIBA Basketball World Cups in 1954 and 1963. At the 1963 event, the Brazil national basketball team won one of its two world championship titles.
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