Brazil
Overview
The Federative Republic of Brazil (República Federativa do Brasil) is Latin America's largest country, occupying about 47% of South America's land area, and the world's fifth-largest country by area. With a population of about 210 million, it ranks around seventh in the world and is the only major country in the Americas with Portuguese as its official language. Based on the Amazon rainforest, cultural symbols such as samba and football, and South America's largest economy, it acts as a core axis of the G20 and BRICS.
Main content
Geography and natural environment
Its territory is about 8,515,767 km², roughly 38 times the size of the Korean Peninsula, and it borders 10 countries including Argentina, Bolivia, and Peru. Representative natural assets include the Amazon Basin, the world's largest tropical rainforest; the Pantanal, the world's largest wetland; Iguaçu Falls; and the tropical coastline along the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the country lies in tropical and subtropical climate zones, giving it high agricultural productivity, but the "arc of deforestation" in the eastern Amazon and recurring droughts are cited as major environmental challenges.
History
After Pedro Álvares Cabral of Portugal arrived in 1500, Brazil remained a colony for more than 300 years, and Africans were brought in large numbers as slaves for sugarcane plantations and gold mining. In 1822, Pedro I declared independence and the Empire of Brazil was established; in 1889, it became a republic. After the period of Getúlio Vargas from 1930, it experienced a military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, and institutionalized democracy through the 1988 "Citizens' Constitution." The income transfer policy (Bolsa Família) of the Lula da Silva government from 2003 to 2010 had a major impact on poverty reduction.
Politics and administration
It is a presidential federal republic composed of 26 states and a Federal District (Brasília). The National Congress is bicameral, with a Chamber of Deputies (513 seats) and a Senate (81 seats), and the Supreme Federal Court (STF) exercises constitutional jurisdiction. The political pendulum of the recent decade has been marked by the 2016 impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, the Bolsonaro government from 2019 to 2022, and Lula's third term in 2023.
Economy
GDP is around $2 trillion, ranking 9th-10th globally, and it is South America's largest market. It belongs to the top group of exporters of agricultural products such as soybeans, coffee, meat, and sugar; Embraer (aircraft), Petrobras (oil), and Vale (iron ore) are representative companies. Development of offshore oil fields (pre-salt) elevated it to the ranks of oil-producing countries, but high income inequality and a complex tax structure remain structural challenges.
Society and culture
A multiethnic society mixing Indigenous, European, African, and Asian peoples, with very high rates of racial mixing. Portuguese is the official language, and Rio Carnival, samba, bossa nova, capoeira, feijoada, and Candomblé faith form cultural identity. At the same time, urban poverty symbolized by favelas and public security issues are major social issues.
Sports
The national football team holds the world record with 5 World Cup victories (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002), and Pelé, Ronaldo, and Neymar are representative stars. It hosted the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and is also strong in volleyball and mixed martial arts (MMA).
Recent developments
In 2024, it hosted the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, strengthening its voice as a representative of the "Global South," and continues to play a leading role in the expanded BRICS framework. At the end of 2024, trade agreement negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Mercosur entered a concluding phase, and in the same year Brazil was confirmed as the host of the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup. Domestically, a large-scale tax reform centered on consumption taxes began to be implemented in stages, and volatility in the real and a high-interest-rate (Selic) stance acted as key variables in fiscal management. In 2025, the 30th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP30) will be held in Belém, the gateway to the Amazon, bringing forest protection and energy transition to the fore as the biggest agenda items, and strengthened enforcement against illegal logging recorded the achievement of lowering the Amazon deforestation rate to its lowest level in a decade. In 2025, as tariffs expanded due to trade friction with the United States, export diversification and expanded trade with China emerged as policy tasks, and ahead of the 2026 presidential election, political polarization is deepening again.
Related topics
- [[Amazon rainforest]]
- [[BRICS]]
- [[Mercosur]]
- [[Latin America]]
- [[FIFA World Cup]]