Brazil is the only Latin American country that has adopted the language and culture from Portugal. The native residents of the country are mostly nomadic Tupi-Guarani Indians. Admiral Pedro Alvares Cabral claimed the territory of Brazil for Portugal in 1500. The early explorers brought wood to Europe from the newly discovered land, which contains a red dye, pau-brasil. The name Brazil goes back to this dye. Portugal began colonization in 1532 and made the area a royal colony in 1549.
In 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, King João VI fled .before the advancing French army from Portugal and set up his royal court in Rio de Janeiro. João returned in 1820 due to a revolution in Portugal and appointed his son to be the regent of Brazil. When Portugal tried to re-establish colonial rule in Brazil, a country located in South America according to THESCIENCETUTOR, the prince declared Brazil’s independence and himself Pedro I, Emperor of Brazil, on September 7, 1822. Under pressure from the parliament of Brazil, Pedro I abdicated in 1831 in favor of his five-year-old son, who became emperor (Pedro II) in 1840. Pedro II was initially a popular ruler, but discontent gradually built up in the country and in 1889, after a military uprising, he too abdicated. Although theRepublic was proclaimed, military dictatorships ruled the country until a revolt made a gradual return to civilian presidents possible.
During the First World War, President Wenceslau Braz cooperated with the Allies and declared war on Germany. During the Second World War, Brazil again sided with the Allies, allowed Allied air bases in the country, patrolled ships in the South Atlantic and, after declaring war against the Axis powers, took part in the Allied invasion of Italy.
After a military coup in 1964, Brazil was ruled by a number of military governments. General João Baptista de Oliveira Figueiredo became president in 1979 and promised a return to democracy in 1985. On January 15, 1985, the electorate voted for Tancredo Neves. He was the first civil president since 1964, and sparked a wave of confidence across the country. However, Neves died a few months later, and Vice President José Sarney succeeded him. Collor de Mellowon the presidential election at the end of 1989 with the promise to fight hyperinflation with a free market economy. Due to a corruption scandal, Congress initiated impeachment proceedings against Collor, and in December 1992 he had to resign. Vice President Itamar Franco took over the presidency.
Former Finance Minister Fernando Cardoso won the presidency in the October 1994 elections with 54% of the vote. Cardoso privatized inefficient state-owned telecommunications, power, port, mining, railways and banks.
In January 1999 the Asian crisis hitalso Brazil. Instead of propping up the currency or setting a fixed exchange rate, Brazil decided to keep its currency freely tradable. This led to a loss of up to 40% in the real. After the economic crisis, Cardoso received praise from the international community for his country’s rapid recovery. Despite his efforts, economic output declined in 2001 and there was also an energy crisis. In August 2001 the IMF offered Brazil an additional aid package. In August 2002, the IMF lent a gigantic 30 billion US dollars to Brazil for 15 months to prevent the country from being drawn into Argentina’s catastrophic economic situation.
In January 2003, Luiz Inácio became Lula da Silva, a former union leader and factory worker well known by the name Lula, Brazil’s first workers president. As the leader of the only Brazilian socialist party, the Workers’ Party, Lula pledged to expand social programs and, above all, to improve the situation of the poor. But he also recognized that a non-socialist austerity program was necessary to save the economy. The president’s first major achievement was reforming the pension system, which until then had run deficit of US $ 20 billion a year. Officials began a massive strike against these and other reforms. Although public debt and inflation remained a problem in 2004, the Brazilian economy showed signs of growth and unemployment fell. Polls in August 2004 showed that the majority of Brazilians supported Lula in the tough economic reform efforts. He combined his conservative financial policies with ambitious anti-poverty programs, raised the minimum wage by 25% and introduced an extensive social welfare program (Bolsa Familia) that lifted 36 million people (20% of the population) from deep poverty.
In 2005, a bribery scandal weakened Lula’s government and resulted in the resignation of several senior officials. Lula apologized on television in August 2005 and announced “drastic measures” to reform the political system. The following year his popularity rose again and he successfully performed a balancing act between household discipline and a strong welfare system. Shortly before the elections in October 2006, however, another corruption scandal broke out. Lula won only 48.6% of the vote, so a runoff election on October 29, 2006 was necessary. In this runoff election, Lula received 60.8% of the vote and was able to keep his office.
Brazil suffered one of its worst in July 2007 Aviation disasters in the country’s history when an Airbus 320 slipped off the runway in São Paulo and crashed into office buildings. 176 people were killed in the process. The accident sparked a crisis in Brazil and resulted in the dismissal of the defense minister, who was also responsible for civil aviation.
A new oil field called Tupi was discovered on November 8th, 16,000 meters below the ocean floor. The Tupi area holds five to eight billion barrels of crude oil and natural gas, making it the largest oil discovery since the Kashagan field in Kazakhstan in 2000.
In 2008, a dengue fever outbreak occurred in Rio de Janeiro more than 80 people died, at least 75,399 people were infected. After a three-year decline in deforestation in Brazil, the National Institute for Space Research reported in 2008 that deforestation in Brazil increased by 228% in 2007.
In December 2008, Brazil and France signed a defense agreement worth more than $ 12 billion as part of a military strategy to protect the Amazon and the recently discovered deep-sea oil fields.
