Brazil-A profile
Geography and climate
As the largest country in South America and the fifth largest in the world, Federative Republic of Brazil borders the Atlantic Ocean and shares a boundary with almost every country on the continent, except only Chile and Ecuador are not border each other. Brazil owns 8,511,965 square kilometers land area, which is slightly smaller than the U.S. The weather is mostly tropical, but temperate in South. Its terrain is diverse and varies from the rich south to the rainforest of the north; it also has some plains, hills, mountains, and narrow coastal belt. The basin occupies more than 60% of the entire country and brings plentiful of rain, and summer is Brazil’s rainy season. History
By adventurous leader Pedro Cabral, Brazil became a colony of Portuguese in 1550 and last for more than three centuries. Meanwhile, the indigenous native Indian has tapered. Brazil gained its independence on 7th September in 1822 with a constitutional monarchy, and abolished slavery in 1888 and the subsequent proclamation of a republic by the military next year. In 1985, populist and military government turned into civilian rulers peacefully. In 1988, Brazil National Congress brought forward and enacted a new constitution that upheld the presidential system while simultaneously spreading around political power. The Constitution is made up with 250 permanent articles and 94 provisional articles. Political and Legal system
Brazil is formed of a handful of islands and a land mass; it divides into 26 states and one federal district. The system allows Brazilians to elect their president directly with a national constituency, and a Congress is elected by very parochial regional interests. The government of Brazil has three independent branches which is similar to the United States system: executive branch, legislative branch and judicial branch. The legal system of Brazilian is Civil Code that original reference in Roman law, but the principle is very slow and burdensome. The National Congress exercises the legislative power by processing the legislative, and it is composed of the Chamber of Deputies and the Federal Senate. The Federal Supreme Court is the highest court which is responsible of safe guarding and supervising the Constitution. Population
Most Brazilians are white (53.7%) and mulatto (38.5%), other ethnic groups are black, Japanese, Arab, Amerindian. According to the estimation on July 2012, the population of Brazil is 199,321,413, and urban population is 87% of total population.
Social patterns
The official and most widely spoken language is Portuguese; English is mainly used as the foreign language by the business community. The nominal religion is Roman Catholic, and many other religions that brought by immigrants of different regions are also exist. On the other hand, Brazil attracts tons of immigrants including Europeans and Asians, recent immigrants come mainly from Argentina, Chile, and Andean countries. Based on the complex background of native Indians, Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese, East European and African immigrants, Brazil offers varies of cultural and social activities.

The Economy Brazil is well-known of its agricultural, mining, manufacturing, and service sectors, and it is still expanding its trades in world markets replying on its automobile production. Brazil became the world’s seventh largest economy in terms of GDP and displaced the United Kingdom in 2011. Being one of the first to begin an economic recovery, Brazil owns enormous natural resources and numerous human resources; it becomes a regional leader and leads economic power. Depend on the three main resources of land, plant and mineral, Brazil keeps growing industrial and agricultural industries and developing domestic affairs. The state of Sao Paulo is responsible for around half of Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product and two-thirds of its manufacturing. Furthermore, Brazil leads the world in coffee production, and it also produces numerous citrus, cattle and iron ore. However, Brazil also has questions like highly unequal income distribution and pressing crimes, the living standards and income gap are one of the preoccupations of successive government.

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