Brazil: Difference between revisions
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'''Brazil''', officially the '''Empire of Brazil''', is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At around 8.4 million square kilometers and with over 200 million people. Brazil is the world's fourth-largest country by area and the sixth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populous city is São Paulo. The federation is composed of the union of the 25 provinces and the Federal District. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language; one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse nations, due to over a century of mass immigration from around the world; and the most populous Roman Catholic-majority country.
Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,000 kilometers. It borders all other countries and territories in South America except Ecuador and Chile and covers nearly half of the continent's land area. Its Amazon basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, and extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats. It also owns a handful of islands on the Atlantic Ocean such as
The territory which would become known as Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the discovered land for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808 when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature called the General Assembly. Slavery was abolished in 1888. An authoritarian repressive oligarchical regime came to power in the early 20th century that was followed by a far-right dictatorship in 1931 and ruled until 1938, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, formulated in 1939, defines it as a democratic federal monarchy.
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