Statistics
(Brazil) |
Area: 8,514,877 km2
Population
(may be an estimate):
185,843,253 (2009) |
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 Español •  Français •  Português •
Brazil is the biggest country in Latin America: it covers almost half of the Latin America continent (47.3 percent) with an area of 8.5 million square kilometres (3.3 square miles), and it is the fifth biggest country in the world, after the Russian Federation, Canada, China and the United States.
Except for a small amount of islands, Brazil is a whole and continuous territorial extension, and on the world map one can see that the shape of the East contour of Brazil conforms with the concave curve of West Africa; the Equator line crosses the North region of the country, next to Macapá, and the Tropic of Capricorn crosses the South, next to São Paulo.
Brazil has frontiers with ten countries: French Guiana, Suriname, Guiana, Venezuela and Colombia, in the North; Uruguay and Argentine, on the South; Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru, on the West.
Ecuador and Chile are the only countries of South America with which Brazil has no frontiers.
The Atlantic Ocean extends for all its East coast, making up 7367 km (4604 mi) of coastal waters.
In April 1500, the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral arrived at the coast of the current Brazil and claimed formally all the region in the name of Portugal: before coming ashore, he named the region as Monte Pascoal (Easter Mount); later, the territory was called Terra de Vera Cruz (True Cross Land).
An expedition led by Gaspar de Lemos, on which the Florentine navigator Americo Vespucio participated, was sent to Terra de Vera Cruz by the Portuguese government in 1501, and during the exploration baptized many capes and bays, including one bay denominated Rio de Janeiro (January River).
The name of the Land of Vera Cruz was changed into Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), and finally Brazil, in reference to brazil wood, a tree abundant on the region, which the expedition took in big quantities on its return to Portugal.
Nowadays, the Discovery Day of Brazil is April 22nd, and on the year 2000, exactly on the turn of the millenium, the country commemorated its 500 years.
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