Brazil

Fast Facts

Location: Latin America

Capital: Brasilia

Population: 215.8 million (2022)

Government Type: Democratic federative republic

Language: Portuguese

Climate: Humid tropical/subtropical (with an arid region in the northeast)

GDP: USD $1.61 trillion (2021)

Human Development Index Ranking: 0.765 (Moderate-High)

Overview

Brazil is an enormous country that dominates much of the Latin American continent. It boasts the continent’s largest economy, its largest population, its largest geographic size, its second largest tourist population (behind only Argentina), and the world’s third largest agricultural production rate (behind only the United States and China). Brazil is a hugely important and impressive country in nearly every regard - but internal problems persist nevertheless. Deforestation due to the expansion of agriculture and livestock is significant, corruption remains a concern across nearly all public services, and crime rates remain high. It is, therefore, extremely difficult to make any generalisations about Brazil - but one can certainly state that it is a country of both enormous successes, and equally enormous difficulties.

History

A Romantic depiction of the first Portuguese landing in Brazil. Credit: SciHi.org

The pre-colonial history of Brazil is poorly understood due to the lack of a centralised civilisation in the area, leaving few archaeological discoveries, but by the arrival of Portuguese Europeans in the 1500s, it is estimated that there existed about 1000 different tribes totaling somewhere between 2 and 6 million people. The first permanent Portuguese settlement, created for the ability to harvest sugarcane and brazilwood for dyes, was established near modern-day Sao Paulo in 1532, with the first national capital (Salvador) settled 17 years later. As a Portuguese colony, and even after independence in 1822, Brazil was the epicenter of the slave trade, with an estimated 4 million Africans being sent there over the course of 300 years (accounting for approximately one-third of all slaves, more than any other country in the Americas). Brazil was the last country to abolish slavery, doing so in 1888, though many Brazilians had already decided to liberate their slaves on their own beforehand, due to the modernisation of agriculture and increasing urbanisation, leaving little purpose in retaining the practice of rural, agrarian slavery.

Towards the end of the 19th century, a military coup, led by Deodoro da Fonseca, overthrew the Brazilian monarchy, establishing the new federative republic and drafting a new constitution modeled after that of the United States’. Under this constitution, however, democracy was not completely guaranteed - while the country’s “Coffee Presidents” (so-called because of their origins from coffee-rich provinces) oversaw peace and stability, they were also indirectly responsible for election fraud and the ability for only wealthy landowners to vote. By 1929, the effects of the Great Depression caused demand for coffee to plummet, leading to widespread unrest throughout Brazil, ending with the army installing Getulio Vargas - a dictator - as president in 1937. Despite ruling as an autocrat, Vargas aligned Brazil with the Allies during WWII, making it the only South American nation to join the Allies and send forces to the European theatre of war.

15 years after the German defeat, Vargas was no longer the Brazilian dictator, and the country had entered a reasonably long period of democracy. Three publicly elected presidents had served terms (of varying length), and the capital had been moved to the newly founded Brasilia. But the economy had been faltering, causing mass inequality over a prolonged period of time, and anti-communist sentiment had existed for long enough for the army to stage another coup d’etat and seize control. Although democracy was crushed and censorship became rife, it was during this period that Brazil’s “economic miracle” occurred. Efforts to attract foreign direct investment meant that exports expanded in both diversity and amount, public infrastructure developments took place, and GDP began growing by 11% annually. But the striking of workers in Sao Paulo allowing for the restoration of trade unions, the allowance of political parties, and the election of Tancredo Neves (who died before taking office) signaled the end of Brazil’s military rule.

Economy

Brazil has the world’s eighth largest economy in the world, with approximately 75% of GDP being generated by the services sector - an indication of a highly developed economic landscape. Major exports of Brazil include soybeans, iron ore, crude petroleum, and beef to the world’s largest markets (mainly China, Canada, Argentina, and the US), while imports consist largely of medical equipment, automotive machinery, and advanced electronics.

Despite being largely unaffected by the 2008 financial crisis, Brazil’s economy was hit by a serious recession - the country’s worst ever - in the mid 2010’s, with GDP shrinking by 3% for the first three quarters of 2015. In fact, the national GDP of Brazil still has not returned to its peak of USD $2.62 trillion in 2011. The recession was caused by falls in Brazil’s main export commodity prices, inflation mismanagement, and a lack of investment in the state-owned Petrobras oil company.

The economy has begun to recover from the additional effects of COVID-19, which has also badly affected the country, but any hopes for another Brazilian economic miracle like that of the 1970s do not appear to be on the horizon - yet.

Deforestation: Just How Severe Is It, and What is Being Done About It?

Credit: Reuters, via BBC

Brazil’s largest environmental issue has been a widespread problem for decades. Losses of trees and biodiversity in the Amazon rainforest have accelerated under President Jair Bolsonaro, who has encouraged the expansion of agricultural and mining activities in the area, sending deforestation rates to a 12-year high in 2020. The Amazon Aid Foundation identifies a number of negative effects from the destruction of the rainforest, including the disruption of livelihood for indigenous peoples, increased pollution, and more.

Fortunately, the situation is not entirely bleak. In 2004, Brazil introduced its Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Deforestation of the Amazon. Prior to the implementation of this plan, the Amazon’s deforestation rate stood at 27,700 square kilometers per year - a number which decreased to 4,500 square kilometers per year by 2012. Furthermore, in April 2021, nine corporate giants and three national governments (the USA, UK, and Norway) joined forces to raise over USD $1 billion to protect the forest and accelerate sustainable development. USAID in Brazil also seeks to ensure that economic development is carried out in the most vulnerable communities, in order to reduce the need for agriculture-based land clearing. But the rainforest’s fate will be greatly, and likely, ultimately, determined by the results of Brazil’s 2023 presidential election, as the foreign minister of the current president has stated that “there is no climate crisis”, and Bolsonaro himself has implicitly rallied against environmental protection efforts.

Trivia

-Brazil shares a border with every South American country, except for Ecuador and Chile.

-Due to French Guyana being formal French territory, France’s longest international border is with Brazil, rather than any European county.

-20 miles off of the coast of Sao Paulo lies an island that is strictly forbidden to access without permission from the Brazilian navy, due to it being home to an enormous amount of extremely venomous snakes - an estimated 1 per square meter.

-Commentors during WWII stated that “One would be more likely to see a smoking snake, than a Brazilian fighting force in Europe”. When Brazil entered the war as part of the Allies, the expeditionary force chose a cobra with a cigar as their identifying patch.