Brazil
By; Nicholas Small
Brief History
Brazil is local in South America and before it was Brazil it was own by the Portuguese. The Portuguese and other Europeans value the wood that grows on the coast of today’s Brazil and they value the red dye of the wood. Portuguese trader came in the 1500’s and discover the Brazilian wood trees and another cool little fact is the wood found on the coast of Brazil is how it got its name. Brazil was ruled by the Portuguese for over 300 years. But in 1822 Brazil had got its independence from Portugal without war and ended its monarchy in 1889 ("Brazil”).
In the 19th century coffee took the place of sugar as Brazil most valuable product. The production coffee brought a wave of euro to Brazilian republic. But what most people don’t know Brazil was home to many tribes. But today there are few evidence of these tribes. Brazil language was greatly influenced by the great numbers of Africans and Indians. Also Brazil dialect dominant influence in the development of the Portuguese language (“Brazil-History”).
Government Set up
Brazil government is a democracy or federal republic. The constitution of 1969 suspended by a succession of military government and was amended in 1977. In 1978 vested executive power in the President. The legislative power was vested in a senate and chamber of deputies and the judicial power in the supreme court. In Oct. 5, 1988 the new constitution provides for directly elected president which mean they use a electoral college to pick the president. To vote in Brazil you have to be in the ages of 18 - 65. But recently in Brazil in the year 2001 the legislative gave women the the same rights as men and on May 2003 the president appointed the first black supreme court judge (Snaden).
Brazil has 26 states and also Federal District of Brasilia. Just like the United States each state elects legislature and governor. Members of the Chamber of Deputies and Federal senate are part of National Congress.Senators serve years terms with 3 senators from each state. So for example Brazil is a smaller version of the U.S.
Major Issues
Most people know Brazil as a warm climate place with great beach and party capital. But extreme poverty is a big problem the country faces even still today. 5% of every urban areas are extreme poor. What makes up most of the poor are small farms which is about 40%. 46% are landless and unemployed laborers. Only 1.2% of the Brazil economy goes to the poor (Giberto).
A example of the issues in Brazil is from an article called “ Brazil’s Economic Crisis Beats the Emerging Middle Class Back Down” . What the article talks about is the inflation and the the amount of taxes and unemployment that threaten the progress in the country income gap. For you that don’t know inflation happens when to money is being printed. A example of this is if I happen the only pen in the world it will have a lot of value but when their are billions of the same pen it is no longer valuable same thing when you print to much money. But is going on right the reduced government subsidies and also the drought the means of living has gone up. More and more people are can not pay their bills (Kiernan).Economy
Geography
Brazil is one of the biggest countries in the world. Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world. Brazil is almost half of South America. Brazil touch all the other countries but Chile and Ecuador. In Brazil it has abundance of rain forest. Home to many different types of animals. Most of the world's coffee comes from Brazil (Gilberto).