Welcome To Brazil

If you were asked to name the five largest countries in the world, would you be surprised to discover that Brazil is one of them? Only Russia, Canada, China, and the United States are bigger.

- Por Marcia Amidon Lusted

Brazil, officially known as the Federative Republic of Brazil, or the República Federativa do Brasil in Portuguese, is the eighth-largest economy in the world, and it is home to almost 212 million people. It is also the only Portuguese-speaking country in both North and South America. Most importantly, Brazil is one of the most diverse and fascinating countries in the world.

Brazil is the largest country in South America and has 4,600 miles of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean. Its almost 10,000 miles of inland borders are shared with every country in South American except Chile and Ecuador. Brazil’s geography features tropical and subtropical areas that include wetlands, savannas, plateaus, low mountains, and clusters of ocean islands. It also contains most of the Amazon River basin and its rain forests. The only environments that Brazil does not have are deserts, high mountains, and arctic regions.

Brazil’s history includes colonization and conflict. The first Portuguese colony was established there in 1516, and at first, the Brazilian natives were forced to work for the Portuguese colonists. Later, enslaved Africans were brought to Brazil to work in the sugar plantations. Many years before the slave trade in North American began, more African slaves—about four million—had been brought to Brazil than would ever reach British North America. Many Brazilians have African heritage. Slavery lasted for 300 years in Brazil until it was officially abolished in 1888. It was the last country in the world to outlaw slavery.