ABSTRACT
Brasília, the capital of Brazil, is situated in its own Federal District (Distrito FederalDF). At the 2000 census it was the sixth largest city in the country, with a population of 2,051,146.
República Federativa do Brasil-Federative Republic of Brazil
Brazil is the largest country in Latin America and the fifth largest country in the world. It is situated in the east of South America, extending west through Amazonia to Peru and south on the coast to Uruguay. Area: 8,547,404sq km (3,300,171sq miles); capital: Brasília, which was designed and built inland to draw the population away from the coast, and replaced Rio de Janeiro, the country’s second largest city (population 5.9m.), as capital in 1960. The largest city and main industrial and commercial centre is São Paulo, with a population of 10.1m.; population: 174,632,960 (2002 estimate), 55% being regarded as of principally European descent, 6% of African origin, 22% mixed European and African (mulatto) and 12% mixed European and Amerindian; official language: Portuguese (more than 100 indigenous languages are also spoken); religion: 90% nominally Roman Catholic, though in recent years evangelical protestant sects have made many converts. Constitution: Brazil is a federative republic. Under the 1998 Constitution, legislative power is vested in the National Congress, which has two houses: the Chamber of Deputies, elected by universal suffrage for four years, and the Federal Senate. The Senate consists of three members from each state and from the Federal District, elected for eight years, of whom one-third retire after four years in office and two-thirds after eight years. Executive power is vested in a President of the Republic, elected for four years and (since 1997) eligible for re-election. He chooses the Ministers of State, who must countersign his acts and decrees. Voting is compulsory for all literate citizens over 18 and under 69 years of age, and optional for the illiterate, those aged 16-17 and those aged over 70. The President-elect takes office on 1 January of the year following his election. History: Brazil was probably discovered by the Portuguese as early as the 1480s, and had been assigned to Portugal by the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 before Cabral returned to claim it in 1500. In the 17th century the Dutch made a determined effort to annex the chain of coastal settlements the Portuguese had established, but the settlers themselves had repelled them by 1658. By then they had already begun to enjoy great prosperity by importing African slaves to grow sugar. In 1808 the Portuguese royal family took refuge
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in Rio de Janeiro from Napoleon’s forces. At the end of the wars in Europe the crown prince remained in Brazil, and, in 1822, proclaimed Brazilian independence, first as a kingdom and then as an empire. However, the decision to free the slaves in 1888 led to the fall of the empire and the proclamation of the republic in the following year.
