Brazil’s official name is República Federativa do Brasil (Federative Republic of Brazil).
The word “Brazil,” meaning “red like an ember,” comes from pau brasil (brazilwood), a tree that once grew abundantly along the Brazilian coast that produced a deep, red dye. Brazilwood was valued by European traders who came from the Portuguese coasts in the 16th century to trade with the Tupí-Guaraní Indians.
The Portuguese officially named what we now know as Brazil Terra do Santa Cruz (Land of the Holy Cross), but traders simply called it Terra do Brasil.
The highest point in Brazil is Pico da Neblina at 9,823 feet (2,994 m).
Brazil is the largest Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) nation in the world and the only one in the Americas.
Brazil is the sixth largest country in the world by population at 201,009,622 people.
Interesting Brazil History Fact
Historians typically regard Pedro Álvares Cabral as the discoverer of Brazil
Pedro Álvares Cabral was sailing for India when he landed on the Brazilian coast on April 22, 1500, claiming Brazil for the Portuguese Empire.
Brazil’s official birthday as a country occurred on September 7, 1822, when Prince Pedro refused to return to Portugal. He announced the Grito de Ipiranga by throwing down his sword and shouting, “Independence or death!” Although free of Portugal’s hold, Brazil remained a monarchy until its declaration of independence as a republic in 1889.
Elected on October 30, 2010, Dilma Rousseff is Brazil’s current president and the first woman to hold this office.
Brazil is the world’s largest market for crack cocaine.
Brazilian cowboys are called gaúchos. They live primarily in Rio Grande do Sul in the southern part of the country, which is part of the South American pampas and borders Uruguay and Argentina.
Natives of Rio de Janeiro’s city proper are called Cariocas.
Francisco de Orellana, a 16th century explorer, became the first European to travel the entire Amazon from Peru through Brazil in 1541. He was fascinated by the Indian women warriors who lived alone and would later be dubbed “Amazons.”
On December 25, 1988, in the state of Acre on the southwestern border of the Amazon, a Brazilian rubber-tapper named Chico Mendes became the world’s first eco-martyr. He was assassinated for trying to preserve the Amazon rainforest and advocating for the rights of Brazilian peasants and indigenous peoples.
The United States is s about 3,717,811 square miles while Brazil is slightly smaller at about 3,286,486 square miles
Brazil is the fifth largest country by landmass in the world with 5.35 million square miles (8.45 million square km). It is the largest country in both South America and the entire Latin American region.
The Brazilian national dish is feijoada, a black bean stew with dried, salted, and smoked meat.
The centerpiece of Rio de Janeiro’s Carnival, Brazil’s world-famous pre-Lenten celebration, is the main Samba School Parade
The Amazon River, over half of which lies within Brazil, is the world’s largest by volume. It is 3,977 miles (6,400 km) long and during the wet season it can become over 118 miles (190 km) wide.
Brazil boasts the largest population of Catholics in the world at 73.6% of its population.
Bandeirantes were roving groups of hardy slave traders and adventurers who journeyed inland to the city of Minas Gerais to help fuel the Brazilian Gold Rush in the 17th century.
Brazil has 4,655 miles (7,491 km) of coastline, making it the 16th longest national coastline in the world.
Interesting Brazil Facts
All of Brazil’s coast lies adjacent to the Atlantic Ocean
The earliest pottery found in the Western Hemisphere, radiocarbon dated at 8,000 years old, was excavated from the Amazon basin near present-day Santarém in Brazil.
Brazil became the first South American country to accept women into its armed forces, in the 1980s.
Henry Ford organized his own Amazon rubber plantations in 1927: Fordlândia and Belterra. Both failed due to poor disease control over crops.
The Brazilian national drink is the caipirinha which is cachaca (sugarcane liquor) mixed inside a glass with sugar, ice, and crushed lime slices.
The signature song of Brazilian bossa nova is “The Girl from Ipanema.” The woman who inspired the song is Heloísa Pinheiro.
Interesting Brazil Flag Fact
The motto on Brazil’s flag is Ordem e Progresso and is inspired by Auguste Comte’s motto of positivism: “Love as a principle and order as the basis; progress as the goal”
On Brazil’s modern flag, the green represents the forests of Brazil, the yellow rhombus reflects its mineral wealth, and the blue circle and stars depict the sky over Rio de Janeiro on the morning of November 15, 1889, when Brazil declared itself a republic.
The first official tourists arrived in Brazil on January 1, 1502, as a part of a Portuguese exploratory voyage led by André Gonçalves, who named the bay where they landed Ria de Janeiro (Bay of January). The Bay itself was later renamed Guanabara, and Rio de Janeiro became the main city on the bay.
Brasilia is currently the capital of Brazil and is Brazil’s third capital city since independence. Formally dedicated on April 21, 1960, Brasilia is a preplanned city and was designated in 1987 by UNESCO as a “Historic and Cultural Patrimony of Humanity.
The Inconfidência Mineira (1788-1789) was a failed conspiracy to end the Brazilian monarchy and establish a republic that led to the execution of its leader, Tiradentes.
Jogo do Bicho, a popular Brazilian numbers game based on animal characters, is reckoned to have a turnover of $10 million (U.S.) per week and employs as many as 50,000 people.
The Amazon rainforest is the world’s largest, containing one fifth of the world’s freshwater reserves and producing one third of the earth’s oxygen. About 60% of the Amazon lies in Brazil