Brazil Info

Flag

Green with a large yellow diamond in the center bearing a blue celestial globe with 27 white five-pointed stars (each representing a state of Brazil and the federal district) arranged in the same pattern as the night sky over Brazil; the globe has a white equatorial band with the motto ORDEM E PROGRESSO (Order and Progress).

 

Location

Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Occupies most of eastern-central part of South America. Four different time zones.

Surface Area

Largest South American country with 3,282,226 sq/m (approximately same size as the USA). Covers 21% of the Americas and 47% of South America. The Amazon region covers 1.9 million sq. m., 60% of Brazil’s total area.

 

Frontiers

Brazil shares common boundaries with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador.

 

Currency

Real (R$)

 

Temperatures

In most of Brazil the climate is tropical with temperatures rarely under 18ºC. In Rio de Janeiro, summer temperatures can reach the 40ºC. In São Paulo, winter temperatures can fall to under 10ºC. Snow occasionally falls in the southern states of Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, when below freezing temperatures are recorded. In São Paulo and Rio, summer rainstorms often lead to extensive flooding.

 

Natural resources

Iron ore, manganese, bauxite, nickel, uranium, phosphates, tin, hydropower, gold, platinum, petroleum, timber.

 

Government

Presidentialist Republic

 

Administrative Division

Brazil is a federal republic with one federal district (Brasilia) and 26 states: Acre, Alagoas, Amapá, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Goiás, Maranhão, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pará, Paraíba, Paraná, Pernambuco, Piauí, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia, Roraima, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Sergipe and Tocantins.

 

Legal System

Based on Roman codes.

 

Legislative Branch

Bicameral National Congress (Congresso Nacional), Federal Senate (Senado Federal).

 

Judicial Branch

Supreme Federal Tribunal.

 

Main Industries

Textiles and other consumer goods, shoes, chemicals, cement, lumber, iron ore, steel, motor vehicles and auto parts, metalworking, capital goods, tin.

 

Main Agriculture Products

Brazil is the world’s largest producer and exporter of coffee and orange juice concentrate and second-largest exporter of soybeans; other products - rice, corn, sugarcane, cocoa, beef. Self-sufficient in food, except for wheat.

 

Main Exports

Iron ore, soybean bran, orange juice, footwear, coffee, motor vehicle parts.

 

Main Imports

Crude oil, capital goods, chemical products, foodstuffs, coal.

 

Brazil is a land of extremes, a country that tends to operate by astonishment.

Few people realize that:

• it occupies a land mass larger than Continental United States;
• it is the most populous country in Latin America;
• it is the only country in the Western Hemisphere that speaks Portuguese;
• it is home to the largest black population of any country besides Nigeria.

In terms of natural resources Brazil also astonishes. It contains:

• the largest rainforest in the world (the Amazon);
• the largest river (the Amazon River);
• the largest wetlands preserve (Pantanal) and
• the largest waterfall (Iguassú Falls).

A GIANT BY NATURE

Ministry of External Relations/Trade Promotion Department)

 

The endless forests are replete with their own attraction from trees to animals, but human art and ingenuity are enriching the quality of tourism in Amazonas, where the primitive and modern live side by side in harmony.

Amazonas State is only place on Earth where ancient life coexists with the kaleidoscope of modern technology. Unlike the other major tourist destinations in Brazil, Amazonas boasts a large variety of spectacles that are unique, such as its unrivalled display of biodiversity.

 

All beauty begins in the state capital and point of entry to the region, Manaus, a city that it much more than a town surrounded by jungle. The city is hot and humid; lying a mere 26 meters above sea level although more than 2,00 kilometers from the ocean. Starting off a small village on the left bank of the Rio Negro, the city was baptized Manaus at the beginning of the 19th Century. In fact, the original name was “Manaós”, which in Nhengatu (the native language) means “Mother of God”. But it was only in 1848 that the settlement was elevated to the category of municipality in the state of Amazonas.