Histórico, político y económico de la revisión de Вrasil

Brazil

Since it is impossible to cover all countries in South America, we have first selected Brazil for a detailed cultural analysis because it is the largest in terms of population, land mass, and economy.

Historical, Political, and Economic Overview

Brazil is a federated republic of more than 3 million square miles. First inhabited by nomads from Asia millennia ago, the indigenous people evolved into tribal groups, which today are called Amerindians. The civilization the developed included empires, such as the Inca, which stretched from Columbia to Argentina. The first Europeans to discover Brazil may have been Jean Cousins in 1488 or Christopher Columbus in 1498. But Portuguese claimed the land in 1500 when their fleet of home dozen ships under the command of Pedro Alvarez Cabral arrived mistakenly in what is called today the state of Bahia!

For almost four centuries, Portugal maintained control of Brazil, exploiting many of its resources. Gold, gems, rubber, cocoa, cattle, and other products were shipped to the homeland or abroad. Portuguese noblemen ruled in 12 areas of the colony, and established a plantation economy. This led to the import of some 4 million African slaves to work in the land. In 1615, Brazil became the seat of the entire Portuguese empire. When the emperor returned to Portugal, his son Pedro ll declared Brazil an independent nation in 1822. In 1865 - 1870, the country engaged in a ruinous war with Paraguay. His 49-year reign transformed the country into a modern state, including the freeing of the African slaves in 1888. When the military overthrew his monarchy, they declared Brazil a republic in 1889.

Today's federated republic has a bicameral National Congress with a Federal Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The latter's 513 members are elected by proportional representation and serve 4-year terms. Besides this legislative branch, the judiciary consists of the Supreme Federal Tribunal with 11 members appointed by the president for life and confirmed by vote of the Senate. There are many political parties, and passing reforms is difficult; governance is by coalitions and concessions. The country has formal relationships with many international organizations, such as the United Nations, World Trade Organization, World Bank, and economic partnership with its neighbors through MERCOSUR, a regional trade group.

The Brazilian presidential election on October 27, 2002, was a milestone. For the first time, a simple man from a poor family was successfully elected to the highest position in Brazilian politics. Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva, known as "Lula", was one of the founders and foremost leader of the metallurgical union and the Workers' Party (PT) Historically, Brazilian presidents have come from the elite class. Because of his origins, and because 22 % of the population lives below the official poverty level, President Lula chose to focus his administration upon the "Zero Hunger" program, while seeking solutions to critical social problems: improving education; century-long land reform problems cleaning up rampant corruption and crime; reducing unemployment and reformulating the pension, benefit system; curbing inflation, and national debt problems; jump-starting a stagnant economy.

Protecting

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