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República
Federativa do Brasil
| Brazil is the largest country in
Latin America. It spreads across almost half
(47.3%) of South America, and occupies a total
area of 8,547,403.5 km2. It is the fifth
largest country in the world after Canada, the
Russian Federation, China and the United
States. Except for a small number of islands,
Brazil is a single and continuous land
mass. The Equator passes through the
northern region, near Macapá, and the Tropic
of Capricorn cuts through the south of the
country, near São Paulo. Brazil’s east to
west extension (4,319.4 km) is almost
equivalent to its north to south distance
(4,394.7 km). The country borders French
Guiana, Suriname, Guiana, Venezuela and
Colombia, to the north; Uruguay and Argentina,
to the south; and Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru,
to the west. Ecuador and Chile are the only
two countries on the South American continent
that do not border Brazil. The Atlantic Ocean
extends along the country’s entire eastern
coast, providing 7,367 km of coastline. |
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Population: 190,010,647
Language:
Portuguese
Capital: Brasilia
Government: Federal
Republic
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Language
The official language is Portuguese;
however, the accent and the intonation are
very different from what one hears in Portugal
and other former Portuguese colonies. Some
people say that Brazilians speak
“Brazilian”, just like Americans can say
they speak “American”, and not English.
And there are also many Brazilians who are
descendants of immigrants and who speak German
and Italian, especially in cities in southern
Brazil.
Brazil – a country that greets
visitors with a huge smile
The mix of races has made Brazil a
culturally rich and at the same time unique
country. This miscegenation began with the
Indian, the African and the Portuguese, but in
a short time, immigrants from around the world
began to arrive: Europeans, Asians, Jews and
Arabs. The result was a happy people, open to
everything new, a people only found in Brazil.
Because of this tremendous diversity, Brazil
is one of the last places on earth where no
one is a foreigner, where one can change
one’s destiny without losing one’s
identity and where each and every Brazilian
has a little of the entire world in his or her
blood. This may be the reason the Brazilian
receives anyone from another land so well.
According to surveys carried out with foreign
tourists who visited the country, 97.2% intend
to return soon; 56.5% had their expectations
completely satisfied; and, for 31.7%, their
expectations were completely exceeded. As you
can see, those who come to Brazil become fans
on the first visit.
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Brazilian democracy
Brazil has been a republic since
1889. Throughout this entire period, the
country actually lived little more than thirty
years of democracy (1946-1964 and from 1985 to
the present). Nevertheless, it is one of the
most democratic nations on earth. Brazilian
democracy, which was won back after 21 years
of a military dictatorship, proved to be
vigorous and became an important part of the
life of its people. |
| The National
Congress has been operating like clockwork for
175 years. In the entire history of the
country, only on three occasions did the
elected representatives not complete their
terms. The strength of the Congress is
actually so great that not even the military
dictatorship of the 1960s could do without it.
There have been national elections in Brazil
since 1823. And these elections have been open
to voters in a manner almost unheard of even
for European democracy standards. |
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