The goat or domestic goat (Capra hircus) is a species of goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (C. aegagrus) of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the family Bovidae, meaning it is closely related to the sheep. It was one of the first animals to be domesticated, in Iran around 10,000 years ago.
Goats have been used for milk, meat, wool, and skins across much of the world. Milk from goats is often turned into cheese. In 2022, there were more than 1.1 billion goats living in the world, of which 150 million were in India.
Goats feature in mythology, folklore, and religion in many parts of the world, including in the classical myth of Amalthea, in the goats that pulled the chariot of the Norse god Thor, in the Scandinavian Yule goat, and in Hinduism’s goat-headed Daksha. In Christianity and Satanism, the devil is sometimes depicted as a goat.
Etymology
The Modern English word goat comes from Old Englishgāt “goat, she-goat”, which in turn derives from Proto-Germanic *gaitaz (cf. Dutch/Frisian/Icelandic/Norwegiangeit, GermanGeiß, and Gothicgaits), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European*ǵʰaidos meaning “young goat” (cf. Latinhaedus “kid”).[1] To refer to the male goat, Old English used bucca (cf. Dutch/Frisianbok, modern English buck) until ousted by hegote, hegoote (‘he-goat’) in the late 12th century.[2]Nanny goat (adult female) originated in the 18th century, and billy goat (adult male) in the 19th century.[3][4]
Castrated males are called wethers. While the words hircine and caprine both refer to anything having a goat-like quality, hircine is used most often to emphasize the distinct smell of domestic goats.[5][6]
Horn cores from the Neolithic village of Atlit Yam, between 6900 and 6300 BC
Goats are among the earliest animals to have been domesticated by humans.[7] A genetic analysis[8] confirms the archaeological evidence that the wild bezoar ibex, found today in the Zagros Mountains, but formerly widespread in Anatolia, is the likely original ancestor of all or most domestic goats today.[7]
Neolithic farmers began to herd wild goats primarily for easy access to milk and meat, as well as to their dung, which was used as fuel; and their bones, hair, and sinew were used for clothing, building, and tools.[9] The earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000 years Before Present are found in Ganj Dareh in Iran.[10][11] Goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in Jericho, Choga Mami,[12]Djeitun, and Çayönü, dating the domestication of goats in Western Asia at between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago.[7] DNA evidence suggests that goats were domesticated around 10,000 years ago.[8] Historically, goat hide has been used for water and wine bottles in both traveling and transporting wine for sale, and to produce parchment.[13]
Biology
Description
Each breed of goat has specific weight ranges, which vary from more than 140 kg (310 lb) for bucks of larger breeds such as the Boer, to 20 to 27 kg (44 to 60 lb) for smaller does.[14] Within each breed, different strains or bloodlines may have different recognized sizes. At the bottom of the size range are miniature breeds such as the African Pygmy, which stand 41 to 58 cm (16 to 23 in) at the shoulder as adults.[15]
Most goats naturally have two horns, their shape and size depending on the breed.[16] There have been incidents of polycerate goats (having as many as eight horns), although this is a genetic rarity. Unlike cattle, goats have not been successfully bred to be reliably polled, as the genes determining sex and those determining horns are closely linked. Breeding together two genetically polled goats results in a high number of intersex individuals among the offspring, which are typically sterile.[16] Their horns are made of living bone surrounded by keratin and other proteins, and are used for defense, dominance, territoriality,[17] and thermoregulation.[18] Both male and female goats may have beards, and many types of goat (most commonly dairy goats, dairy-cross Boers, and pygmy goats) may have wattles, one dangling from each side of the neck.[19] Goats have horizontal, slit-shaped pupils, allowing them to see well by both night and day, and giving them a wide field of vision on either side to detect predators, while avoiding being dazzled by sunlight from above.[20] Goats have no tear ducts.[21]
Goats are ruminants. They have a four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum. As with other mammal ruminants, they are even-toed ungulates. The females have an udder consisting of two teats, in contrast to cattle, which have four teats.[22] An exception to this is the Boer goat, which sometimes may have up to eight teats.[23][24] Goats are diploid with two sets of 30 chromosomes.[25]
Skeleton
Eye with horizontal pupil
Comparison with sheep
Sheep and goats are closely related: both are in the subfamily Caprinae. However, they are separate species, so hybrids rarely occur and are always infertile. A hybrid of a ewe and a buck is called a sheep-goat hybrid. Visual differences between sheep and goats include the beard of goats and the divided upper lip of sheep. Sheep tails hang down, even when short or docked, while the short tails of goats are held upwards. Sheep breeds are often naturally polled (either in both sexes or just in the female), while naturally polled goats are rare (though many are polled artificially). Males of the two species differ in that buck goats acquire a unique and strong odor during the rut, whereas rams do not.[26]
Behavior and ecology
Goats are naturally curious. They are agile and able to climb and balance in precarious places. This makes them the only ruminant to regularly climb trees. These behaviours have made them notorious for escaping their pens by testing fences and enclosures. If any of the fencing can be overcome, goats almost inevitably escape. Goats are as intelligent as dogs by some studies.[27] When handled as a group, goats display less herding behavior than sheep. When grazing undisturbed, they spread across the field or range, rather than feed side by side as do sheep. When nursing young, goats leave their kids separated (“lying out”) rather than clumped, as do sheep. They generally turn and face an intruder, and bucks are more likely to charge or butt at humans than are rams.[28] A 2016 study reports that goats try to communicate with people like domesticated animals such as dogs and horses. They look to a human for assistance when faced with a newly-modified challenge.[29][30]
Goats reach puberty between three and 15 months of age, depending on breed and nutritional status. Many breeders prefer to postpone breeding until the doe has reached 70% of the adult weight, but this separation is rarely possible in extensively managed, open-range herds.[31]
Bucks (uncastrated males) of Swiss and northern breeds come into rut in the fall as with the does’ heat cycles. Bucks of equatorial breeds may show seasonal reduced fertility, but as with the does, are capable of breeding at all times. Rut is characterized by a decrease in appetite and obsessive interest in the does.[17] A buck in rut displays flehmen lip curling and urinates on his forelegs and face.[32] Sebaceous scent glands at the base of the horns add to the male goat’s odor, which is important to make him attractive to the female. Some does will not mate with a buck which has had its scent glands removed.[17]
Gestation length is approximately 150 days. Twins are the usual result, with single and triplet births also common. Less frequent are litters of quadruplet, quintuplet, and even sextuplet kids. Birthing, known as kidding, generally occurs uneventfully. Just before kidding, the doe will have a sunken area around the tail and hip, as well as heavy breathing. She may have a worried look, become restless and display great affection for her keeper. The mother often eats the placenta, which gives her much-needed nutrients, helps stanch her bleeding, and parallels the behavior of wild herbivores, such as deer, to reduce the lure of the birth scent for predators.[33][34]
Freshening (coming into milk production) usually occurs at kidding, although milk production is also relatively common in unbred doelings of dairy breeds.[35] Milk production varies with the breed, age, quality, and diet of the doe; dairy goats generally produce between 680 and 1,810 kg (1,500 and 4,000 lb) of milk per 305-day lactation. On average, a good quality dairy doe will give at least 3 kg (6 lb) of milk per day while she is in milk. A first-time milker may produce less, or as much as 7 kg (16 lb), or more of milk in exceptional cases. After the lactation, the doe will “dry off”, typically after she has been bred. Occasionally, goats that have not been bred and are continuously milked will continue lactation beyond the typical 305 days.[36]Male lactation sometimes occurs in goats.[37]
Goats are reputed to be willing to eat almost anything. They are browsing animals, not grazers like cattle and sheep, and (coupled with their highly curious nature) will chew on and taste anything resembling plant matter to decide whether it is good to eat, including cardboard, clothing and paper.[38]
The digestive physiology of a very young kid (like the young of other ruminants) is essentially the same as that of a monogastric animal. Milk digestion begins in the abomasum, the milk having bypassed the rumen via closure of the reticuloesophageal groove during suckling. At birth, the rumen is undeveloped, but as the kid begins to consume solid feed, the rumen soon increases in size and in its capacity to absorb nutrients.[39]
The adult size of a particular goat is a product of its breed (genetic potential) and its diet while growing (nutritional potential). As with all livestock, increased protein diets (10 to 14%) and sufficient calories during the prepuberty period yield higher growth rates and larger eventual size than lower protein rates and limited calories.[40] Large-framed goats, with a greater skeletal size, reach mature weight at a later age (36 to 42 months) than small-framed goats (18 to 24 months) if both are fed to their full potential. Large-framed goats need more calories than small-framed goats for maintenance of daily functions.[41]
A goat tied to restrict its grazing area
A goat feeding in a field of capeweed, toxic to most stock animals
While goats are hardy animals and often need little medical care, they are subject to a number of diseases. Among the conditions affecting goats are respiratory diseases including pneumonia, foot rot, internal parasites, pregnancy toxicosis, and feed toxicity. Goats can become infected with various viral and bacterial diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, caprine arthritis encephalitis, caseous lymphadenitis, pinkeye, mastitis, and pseudorabies. They can transmit a number of zoonotic diseases to people, such as tuberculosis, brucellosis, Q fever, and rabies.[42]
Life expectancy for goats is between 15 and 18 years.[43] An instance of a goat reaching the age of 24 has been reported.[44] Several factors can reduce this average expectancy; problems during kidding can lower a doe’s expected life span to 10 or 11, and stresses of going into rut can lower a buck’s expected life span to eight to 10 years.[44]
Husbandry, or animal care and use, varies by region and culture. The minimal requirements for goats include a grazing area or the bringing of fodder to penned animals, with enough hayracks for all of them to feed simultaneously; fresh water; salt licks; space for the animals to exercise; and disposal of soiled bedding.[45]
In Africa and the Middle East, goats are typically run in flocks with sheep. This maximizes the production per acre, as goats and sheep prefer different food plants. Multiple types of goat-raising are found in Ethiopia, where four main types have been identified: pastured in annual crop systems, in perennial crop systems, with cattle, and in arid areas, under pastoral (nomadic) herding systems. In all four systems, however, goats were typically kept in extensive systems, with few purchased inputs.[46]
In Nigeria and in parts of Latin America, some goats are allowed to wander the homestead or village, while others are kept penned and fed in a ‘cut-and-carry’ system. This involves cutting grasses, maize or cane for feed rather than allowing the animal access to the field. The system is well suited for crops like maize that are sensitive to trampling.[47]
Mixed herd of goats and sheep for efficient grazing, Syria[46]
Worldwide population
Worldwide distribution of goats in 2015
The top producers of goat milk in 2022 were India (6.25 million metric tons), Bangladesh (0.91 million metric tons), and South Sudan (0.52 million metric tons).[48] As of 2015, India slaughters 41% of 124.4 million goats each year. The 0.6 million metric tonnes of goat meat make up 8% of India’s annual meat production.[49] Approximately 440 million goats are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide, yielding 6.37 million metric tons of meat.[50]
Goats readily revert to the wild (become feral) if given the opportunity.[7] Feral goats have established themselves in many areas: they occur in Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, the Galapagos and many other places. When feral goats reach large populations in habitats that provide unlimited water supply and do not contain sufficient large predators or are otherwise vulnerable to goats’ aggressive grazing habits, they may have serious effects, such as removing native scrub and trees. Feral goats are extremely common in Australia, with an estimated 2.6 million in the mid-1990s.[51]
Uses
Goats are used to provide milk and specialty wools, and as meat and goatskin.[52][53] Some charities provide goats to impoverished people in poor countries, in the belief that having useful things alleviates poverty better than cash. The cost of obtaining goats and then distributing them can however be high.[54]
Goats produce about 2% of the world’s total annual milk supply.[62] Dairy goats produce an average of 540 to 1,180 kg (1,200 to 2,600 lb) of milk during an average 284-day lactation.[63] The milk can contain between around 3.5% and 5% butterfat according to breed.[64] Goat milk is processed into products including cheese[65] and Dulce de leche.[66]
Most goats have soft insulating hairs nearer the skin, and long guard hairs on the surface. The soft hairs are the ones valued by the textile industry; the material goes by names such as down, cashmere and pashmina. The coarse guard hairs are of little value as they are too coarse, difficult to spin and to dye. The cashmere goat produces a commercial quantity of fine and soft cashmere wool, one of the most expensive natural fibers commercially produced. It is harvested once a year.[67] The Angora breed of goats produces long, curling, lustrous locks of mohair. The entire body of the goat is covered with mohair and there are no guard hairs. The locks constantly grow to four inches or more in length. Angora crossbreeds, such as the pygora and the nigora, have been created to produce mohair and/or cashgora on a smaller, easier-to-manage animal. The wool is shorn twice a year, with an average yield of about 4.5 kg (10 lb).[68]
Goats have been used by humans to clear unwanted vegetation for centuries. They have been described as “eating machines” and “biological control agents”.[69][70] There has been a resurgence of this in North America since 1990, when herds were used to clear dry brush from California hillsides thought to be endangered by potential wildfires. This form of using goats to clear land is sometimes known as conservation grazing. Since then, numerous public and private agencies have hired private herds from companies such as Rent A Goat to perform similar tasks.[69][71] This may be expensive and their smell may be a nuisance.[72] This practice has become popular in the Pacific Northwest, where they are used to remove invasive species not easily removed by humans, including (thorned) blackberry vines and poison oak.[69][73][74] Chattanooga, TN and Spartanburg, SC have used goats to control kudzu, an invasive plant species prevalent in the southeastern United States.[75]
Medical training
Some countries’ militaries use goats to train combat medics. In the United States, goats have become the main animal species used for this purpose after the Pentagon phased out using dogs for medical training in the 1980s.[76] While modern mannequins used in medical training are quite efficient in simulating the behavior of a human body, trainees feel that “the goat exercise provide[s] a sense of urgency that only real life trauma can provide”. The practice has elicited outcry from animal-rights groups.[77]
Pets
Some people choose goats as a pet because of their ability to form close bonds with their human guardians.[78][79] Goats are social animals and usually prefer the company of other goats, but because of their herd mentality, they will follow their owner and form close bonds with them, hence their continuing popularity.[29]
Goats are similar to deer with regard to nutrition and need a wide range of food, including things like hay, grain feed or pelleted grain mix, and loose minerals.[80] Goats generally either inherit certain feeding preferences or learn them after birth.[81]
In classical myth, Amalthea is either a nymph who fed the infant god Jupiter with goat’s milk, or the goat who suckled the infant. In another legend, the god broke one of the goat’s horns, endowing it with the power to fill itself with whatever its owner wanted, making it the cornucopia or horn of plenty.[82] The ancient city of Ebla in Syria contains a tomb with a throne decorated with bronze goat heads, now called “The Tomb of the Lord of the Goats”.[83][84]
According to Norse mythology, the god of thunder, Thor, has a chariot that is pulled by the goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr At night when he sets up camp, Thor eats the meat of the goats, but takes care that all bones remain whole. Then he wraps the remains up, and in the morning, the goats always come back to life to pull the chariot. When a farmer’s son who is invited to share the meal breaks one of the goats’ leg bones to suck the marrow, the animal’s leg remains broken in the morning, and the boy is forced to serve Thor as a servant to compensate for the damage.[85] Possibly related, the Yule goat (Julbocken) is a ScandinavianChristmas tradition. It originally denoted the goat that was slaughtered around Yule, now more often a goat figure made out of straw. It is used for the custom of going door-to-door singing carols and getting food and drinks in return, often fruit, cakes and sweets. The Gävle goat is a giant version of the yule goat, erected every year in the Swedish city of Gävle.[86][87] In Finland the tradition of Nuutinpäivä—St. Knut’s Day, January 13—involves young men dressed as goats (Finnish: Nuuttipukki) who visit houses. Usually the dress was an inverted fur jacket, a leather or birch bark mask, and horns. Unlike the analogous Santa Claus, Nuuttipukki was a scary character (cf. Krampus). The men dressed as Nuuttipukki wandered from house to house, came in, and typically demanded food from the household and especially leftover alcohol. In Finland the Nuuttipukki tradition is kept alive in areas of Satakunta, Southwest Finland and Ostrobothnia. Nowadays the character is usually played by children and involves a happy encounter.[88]
The goat is one of the 12-year cycle of animals which appear in the Chinese zodiac.[89] Several mythological hybrid creatures contain goat parts, including the Chimera.[90] The Capricorn constellation sign in the Western zodiac is usually depicted as a goat with a fish’s tail.[91]Fauns and satyrs are mythological creatures with human bodies and goats’ legs.[92] The lustful Greek god Pan similarly has the upper body of a man and the horns and lower body of a goat.[85] A goatee is a tuft of facial hair on a man’s chin, named for its resemblance to a goat’s beard.[93]
Glazed brick depicting a wild goat, from Nimrud, Iraq, 9th–7th century BC
Ancient Greek oenochoe with wild goats, 625–600 BC
In Hinduism, Daksha, one of the prajapati, is sometimes depicted with the head of a male goat. A legend states that Daksha failed to invite Shiva to a sacrifice; Shiva beheaded Daksha, but when asked by Vishnu, restored Daksha to life with the head of a goat.[94] Goats are mentioned many times in the Bible. Their importance in ancient Israel is indicated by the seven different Hebrew and three Greek terms used in the Bible.[95] A goat is considered a “clean” animal by Jewish dietary laws and a kid was slaughtered for an honored guest. It was also acceptable for some kinds of sacrifices. Goat-hair curtains were used in the tent that contained the tabernacle (Exodus 25:4). Its horns can be used instead of sheep’s horn to make a shofar.[96] On Yom Kippur, the festival of the Day of Atonement, two goats were chosen and lots were drawn for them. One was sacrificed and the other allowed to escape into the wilderness, symbolically carrying with it the sins of the community. From this comes the word “scapegoat“.[97] In Matthew 25:31–46, Jesus said that like a shepherd he will separate the nations, rewarding the sheep, those who have shown kindness, but punishing the goats.[95]The devil is sometimes depicted, like Baphomet, as a goat, making the animal a significant symbol throughout Satanism. The inverted pentagram of Satanism is sometimes depicted with a goat’s head of Baphomet, which originated from the Church of Satan.
The word Brazil probably comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.[30] In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology “red like an ember“, formed from brasa (’ember’) and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium).[31] It has alternatively been suggested that this is a folk etymology for a word for the plant related to an Arabic or Asian word for a red plant.[32] As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European textile industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil.[33] Throughout the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples (mostly Tupi) along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders (mostly Portuguese, but also French) in return for assorted European consumer goods.[34]
The official Portuguese name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the “Land of the Holy Cross” (Terra da Santa Cruz),[35] but European sailors and merchants commonly called it the “Land of Brazil” (Terra do Brasil) because of the brazilwood trade.[36] The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name. Some early sailors called it the “Land of Parrots”.[37]
In the Guaraní language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called “Pindorama”, meaning ‘land of the palm trees’.[38]
Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years.[40][41] The earliest pottery ever found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to over 8,000 years ago (6000 BC). The pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the region supported a complex prehistoric culture.[42] The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from AD 400 to 1400, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large populations, mound building, and complex social formations such as chiefdoms.[43]
Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people,[44] mostly semi-nomadic, who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. The population comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups (e.g., the Tupis, Guaranis, Gês, and Arawaks). The Tupi people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás.[45]
Before the arrival of the Europeans, the boundaries between these groups and their subgroups were marked by wars that arose from differences in culture, language and moral beliefs.[46] These wars also involved large-scale military actions on land and water, with cannibalistic rituals on prisoners of war.[47][48] While heredity had some weight, leadership was a status more won over time than assigned in succession ceremonies and conventions.[46]Slavery among the indigenous groups had a different meaning than it had for Europeans, since it originated from a diverse socioeconomic organization, in which asymmetries were translated into kinship relations.[49]
However, the decentralized and unorganized tendencies of the captaincies proved problematic, and in 1549 the Portuguese king restructured them into the Governorate General of Brazil in the city of Salvador, which became the capital of a single and centralized Portuguese colony in South America.[54][55] In the first two centuries of colonization, Indigenous and European groups lived in constant war, establishing opportunistic alliances in order to gain advantages against each other.[56][57][58][59]
By the end of the 17th century, sugarcane exports began to decline[67] and the discovery of gold by bandeirantes in the 1690s would become the new backbone of the colony’s economy, fostering a gold rush[68] which attracted thousands of new settlers to Brazil from Portugal and all Portuguese colonies around the world.[69] This increased level of immigration in turn caused some conflicts between newcomers and old settlers.[70]
The Portuguese colonial administration in Brazil had two objectives that would ensure colonial order and the monopoly of Portugal’s wealthiest and largest colony: to keep under control and eradicate all forms of slave rebellion and resistance, such as the Quilombo of Palmares,[74] and to repress all movements for autonomy or independence, such as the Minas Gerais Conspiracy.[75]
With the end of the Peninsular War in 1814, the courts of Europe demanded that Queen Maria I and Prince Regent John return to Portugal, deeming it unfit for the head of an ancient European monarchy to reside in a colony. In 1815, to justify continuing to live in Brazil, where the royal court had thrived for six years, the Crown established the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, thus creating a pluricontinental transatlantic monarchic state.[79] However, the leadership in Portugal, resentful of the new status of its larger colony, continued to demand the return of the court to Lisbon (see Liberal Revolution of 1820). In 1821, acceding to the demands of revolutionaries who had taken the city of Porto,[80] John VI departed for Lisbon. There he swore an oath to the new constitution, leaving his son, Prince Pedro de Alcântara, as Regent of the Kingdom of Brazil.[81]
The Brazilian War of Independence, which had already begun along this process, spread through the northern, northeastern regions and in the Cisplatina province.[85] The last Portuguese soldiers surrendered on 8 March 1824;[86] Portugal officially recognized Brazilian independence on 29 August 1825.[87]
On 7 April 1831, worn down by years of administrative turmoil and political dissent with both liberal and conservative sides of politics, including an attempt of republican secession[88] and unreconciled to the way that absolutists in Portugal had given in the succession of King John VI, Pedro I departed for Portugal to reclaim his daughter’s crown after abdicating the Brazilian throne in favor of his five-year-old son and heir (Dom Pedro II).[89]
As the new Emperor could not exert his constitutional powers until he came of age, a regency was set up by the National Assembly.[90] In the absence of a charismatic figure who could represent a moderate face of power, during this period a series of localized rebellions took place, such as the Cabanagem in Grão-Pará, the Malê Revolt in Salvador, the Balaiada (Maranhão), the Sabinada (Bahia), and the Ragamuffin War, which began in Rio Grande do Sul and was supported by Giuseppe Garibaldi. These emerged from the provinces’ dissatisfaction with the central power, coupled with old and latent social tensions peculiar to a vast, slaveholding and newly independent nation state.[91] This period of internal political and social upheaval, which included the Praieira revolt in Pernambuco, was overcome only at the end of the 1840s, years after the end of the regency, which occurred with the premature coronation of Pedro II in 1841.[92]
During the last phase of the monarchy, internal political debate centered on the issue of slavery. The Atlantic slave trade was abandoned in 1850,[93] as a result of the BritishAberdeen Act and the Eusébio de Queirós Law, but only in May 1888, after a long process of internal mobilization and debate for an ethical and legal dismantling of slavery in the country, was the institution formally abolished with the approval of the Golden Law.[94]
The foreign-affairs policies of the monarchy dealt with issues with the countries of the Southern Cone with whom Brazil had borders. Long after the Cisplatine War that resulted in the independence of Uruguay,[95] Brazil won three international wars during the 58-year reign of Pedro II: the Platine War, the Uruguayan War and the devastating Paraguayan War, the largest war effort in Brazilian history.[96][97]
Although there was no desire among the majority of Brazilians to change the country’s form of government,[98] on 15 November 1889, in disagreement with the majority of the Imperial Army officers, as well as with rural and financial elites (for different reasons), the monarchy was overthrown by a military coup.[99] A few days later, the national flag was replaced with a new design that included the national motto “Ordem e Progresso“, influenced by positivism. 15 November is now Republic Day, a national holiday.[100]
The early republican government was a military dictatorship, with the army dominating affairs both in Rio de Janeiro and in the states. Freedom of the press disappeared and elections were controlled by those in power.[101] Not until 1894, following an economic crisis and a military one, did civilians take power, remaining there until October 1930.[102][103][104]
In relation to its foreign policy, the country in this first republican period maintained a relative balance characterized by a success in resolving border disputes with neighboring countries,[105] only broken by the Acre War (1899–1902) and its involvement in World War I (1914–1918),[106][107][108] followed by a failed attempt to exert a prominent role in the League of Nations;[109] Internally, from the crisis of Encilhamento[110][111][112] and the Navy Revolts,[113] a prolonged cycle of financial, political and social instability began until the 1920s, keeping the country besieged by various rebellions, both civilian[114][115][116] and military.[117][118][119]
Little by little, a cycle of general instability sparked by these crises undermined the regime to such an extent that in the wake of the murder of his running mate, the defeated opposition presidential candidate Getúlio Vargas, supported by most of the military, successfully led the Revolution of 1930.[120][121] Vargas and the military were supposed to assume power temporarily, but instead closed down Congress, extinguished the Constitution, ruled with emergency powers and replaced the states’ governors with his own supporters.[122][123]
In the 1930s, three attempts to remove Vargas and his supporters from power failed. The first was the Constitutionalist Revolution in 1932, led by São Paulo’s oligarchy. The second was a Communist uprising in November 1935, and the last one a putsch attempt by local fascists in May 1938.[124][125][126] The 1935 uprising created a security crisis in which Congress transferred more power to the executive branch. The 1937 coup d’état resulted in the cancellation of the 1938 election and formalized Vargas as dictator, beginning the Estado Novo era. During this period, government brutality and censorship of the press increased.[127]
With the Allied victory in 1945 and the end of the fascist regimes in Europe, Vargas’s position became unsustainable, and he was swiftly overthrown in another military coup, with democracy “reinstated” by the same army that had ended it 15 years earlier.[132] Vargas committed suicide in August 1954 amid a political crisis, after having returned to power by election in 1950.[133][134]
Several brief interim governments followed Vargas’s suicide.[135]Juscelino Kubitschek became president in 1956 and assumed a conciliatory posture towards the political opposition that allowed him to govern without major crises.[136] The economy and industrial sector grew remarkably,[137] but his greatest achievement was the construction of the new capital city of Brasília, inaugurated in 1960.[138] Kubitschek’s successor, Jânio Quadros, resigned in 1961 less than a year after taking office.[139] His vice-president, João Goulart, assumed the presidency, but aroused strong political opposition[140] and was deposed in April 1964 by a coup that resulted in a military dictatorship.[141]
The new regime was intended to be transitory[142] but gradually closed in on itself and became a full dictatorship with the promulgation of the Fifth Institutional Act in 1968.[143] Oppression was not limited to those who resorted to guerrilla tactics to fight the regime, but also reached institutional opponents, artists, journalists and other members of civil society,[144][145] inside and outside the country through the infamous “Operation Condor“.[146][147] Like other brutal authoritarian regimes, due to an economic boom, known as the “economic miracle“, the regime reached a peak in popularity in the early 1970s.[148]
Slowly, however, the wear and tear of years of dictatorial power had not slowed the repression, even after the defeat of the leftist guerrillas.[149] The inability to deal with the economic crises of the period and popular pressure made an opening policy inevitable, which from the regime side was led by Generals Ernesto Geisel and Golbery do Couto e Silva.[150] With the enactment of the Amnesty Law in 1979, Brazil began a slow return to democracy, which was completed during the 1980s.[92]
Civilians returned to power in 1985 when José Sarney assumed the presidency. He became unpopular during his tenure through failure to control the economic crisis and hyperinflation he inherited from the military regime.[151] Sarney’s unsuccessful government led to the election in 1989 of the almost-unknown Fernando Collor, who was subsequently impeached by the National Congress in 1992.[152] Collor was succeeded by his vice-president, Itamar Franco, who appointed Fernando Henrique Cardoso Minister of Finance. In 1994, Cardoso produced a highly successful Plano Real,[153] that, after decades of failed economic plans made by previous governments attempting to curb hyperinflation, finally stabilized the Brazilian economy.[154][155] Cardoso won the 1994 election, and again in 1998.[156]
Rousseff was impeached by the Brazilian Congress in 2016, halfway into her second term,[161][162] and replaced by her Vice-president Michel Temer, who assumed full presidential powers after Rousseff’s impeachment was accepted on 31 August. Large street protests for and against her took place during the impeachment process.[163] The charges against her were fueled by political and economic crises along with evidence of involvement with politicians from all the primary political parties. In 2017, the Supreme Court requested the investigation of 71 Brazilian lawmakers and nine ministers of President Michel Temer‘s cabinet who were allegedly linked to the Petrobras corruption scandal.[164] President Temer himself was also accused of corruption.[165] According to a 2018 poll, 62% of the population said that corruption was Brazil’s biggest problem.[166]
Brazil occupies a large area along the eastern coast of South America and includes much of the continent’s interior,[174] sharing land borders with Uruguay to the south; Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest; Bolivia and Peru to the west; Colombia to the northwest; and Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and France (French overseas region of French Guiana) to the north. It shares a border with every South American country except Ecuador and Chile.[12]
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, and third largest in the Americas, with a total area of 8,515,767.049 km2 (3,287,956 sq mi),[175] including 55,455 km2 (21,411 sq mi) of water. North to South, Brazil is also the longest country in the world, spanning 4,395 km (2,731 mi) from north to south,[12] and the only country in the world that has the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn running through it.[12] It spans four time zones; from UTC−5 comprising the state of Acre and the westernmost portion of Amazonas, to UTC−4 in the western states, to UTC−3 in the eastern states (the national time) and UTC−2 in the Atlantic islands.[176]
In Brazil, forest cover is around 59% of the total land area, equivalent to 496,619,600 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, down from 588,898,000 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 485,396,000 hectares (ha) and planted forest covered 11,223,600 hectares (ha). Of the naturally regenerating forest, 44% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 30% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For 2015, 56.% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership and 44% private ownership.[178][179]
Many regions have starkly different microclimates.[180][181] An equatorial climate characterizes much of northern Brazil. There is no real dry season, but there are some variations in the period of the year when most rain falls.[177] Temperatures average 25 °C (77 °F),[181] with more significant temperature variation between night and day than between seasons.[180] Over central Brazil, rainfall is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna climate.[180] This region is as extensive as the Amazon basin but has a very different climate as it lies farther south at a higher altitude.[177] In the interior northeast, seasonal rainfall is even more extreme.[182] South of Bahia, near the coasts, and more southerly most of the state of São Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, with rain falling throughout the year.[177] The south enjoys subtropical conditions, with cool winters and average annual temperatures not exceeding 18 °C (64.4 °F);[181] winter frosts and snowfall are not rare in the highest areas.[177][180]
The semiarid climatic region generally receives less than 800 millimeters (31.5 in) of rain,[182] most of which generally falls in a period of three to five months of the year[183] and occasionally less than this, creating long periods of drought.[180] Brazil’s 1877–78 Grande Seca (Great Drought), the worst in Brazil’s history,[184] caused approximately half a million deaths.[185] A similarly devastating drought occurred in 1915.[186] In 2024, for the first time, “a drought has covered all the way from the North to the country’s Southeast”. It is the strongest drought in Brazil since the beginning of measurement in the 1950s, covering almost 60% of the country’s territory. The drought is linked to deforestation and climate change.[187][188][189]
Since 1850, the Brazil has cumulatively contributed an amount of CO2 placing it among the top emitters in the world, mainly due to its land use and forestry practices.[190]
Climate change in Brazil is causing higher temperatures and longer-lasting heatwaves, changing precipitation patterns, more intense wildfires and heightened fire risk.[191] Brazil’s hydropower, agriculture and urban water supplies will be affected.[192] Brazil’s rainforests, and the Amazon, are particularly at risk to climate change. At worst, large areas of the Amazon River basin could turn into savannah, with severe consequences for global climate and local livelihoods.[193]Extreme weather events like droughts and flash floods are causing annual losses of around R$13 billion (US$2.6 billion), equivalent to 0.1% of the country’s 2022 GDP. Climate impacts could exacerbate poverty.[192]
Brazilian topography is also diverse and includes hills, mountains, plains, highlands, and scrublands. Much of the terrain lies between 200 meters (660 ft) and 800 meters (2,600 ft) in elevation.[198] The main upland area occupies most of the southern half of the country.[198] The northwestern parts of the plateau consist of broad, rolling terrain broken by low, rounded hills.[198]
The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to 1,200 meters (3,900 ft).[198] These ranges include the Mantiqueira and Espinhaço mountains and the Serra do Mar.[198] In the north, the Guiana Highlands form a major drainage divide, separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty into the Orinoco River system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in Brazil is the Pico da Neblina at 2,994 meters (9,823 ft), and the lowest is the Atlantic Ocean.[12]
Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world’s most extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic.[199] Major rivers include the Amazon (the world’s second-longest river and the largest in terms of volume of water), the Paraná and its major tributary the Iguaçu (which includes the Iguazu Falls), the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and Tapajós rivers.[199]
The wildlife of Brazil comprises all naturally occurring animals, plants, and fungi in the South American country. Home to 60% of the Amazon rainforest, which accounts for approximately one-tenth of all species in the world,[200] Brazil is considered to have the greatest biodiversity of any country on the planet, containing over 70% of all animal and plant species catalogued.[201] Brazil has the most known species of plants (55,000), freshwater fish (3,000) and mammals (over 689).[202] It also ranks third on the list of countries with the most bird species (1,832) and second with the most reptile species (744).[202] The number of fungal species is unknown but is large.[203] Brazil is second only to Indonesia as the country with the most endemic species.[204]
Cumulatively, Brazil has the highest percentage of deforested and highly degraded rainforest of any Amazonia nation.[208]
More than one-fifth of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil has been completely destroyed, and more than 70 mammals are endangered.[202] The threat of extinction comes from several sources, including deforestation and poaching. Extinction is even more problematic in the Atlantic Forest, where nearly 93% of the forest has been cleared.[209] Of the 202 endangered animals in Brazil, 171 are in the Atlantic Forest.[210] The Amazon rainforest has been under direct threat of deforestation since the 1970s because of rapid economic and demographic expansion. Extensive legal and illegallogging destroy forests the size of a small country per year, and with it a diverse series of species through habitat destruction and habitat fragmentation.[211] Since 1970, over 600,000 square kilometers (230,000 sq mi) of the Amazon rainforest have been cleared by logging.[212]
In 2017, preserved native vegetation occupied 61% of the Brazilian territory. Agriculture occupied only 8% of the national territory and pastures 19.7%.[213] For comparison, in 2019, although 43% of the entire European continent has forests, only 3% of the total forest area in Europe is of native forest.[214] Brazil has a strong interest in conservation, as its agriculture sector directly depends on its forests.[215]
The political-administrative organization of the Federative Republic of Brazil comprises the Union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities.[14] The Union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities, are the “spheres of government”. The federation is set on five fundamental principles: sovereignty, citizenship, dignity of human beings, the social values of labor and freedom of enterprise, and political pluralism.[14]
The classic tripartite branches of government (executive, legislative and judicial under a checks and balances system) are formally established by the Constitution.[14] The executive and legislative are organized independently in all three spheres of government, while the judiciary is organized only at the federal and state and Federal District spheres. All members of the executive and legislative branches are directly elected.[219][220][221]
For most of its democratic history, Brazil has had a multi-party system, with proportional representation. Voting is compulsory for the literate between 18 and 70 years old and optional for illiterates and those between 16 and 18 or beyond 70.[14] The country has around 30 registered political parties. Twenty political parties are represented in Congress. It is common for politicians to switch parties, and thus the proportion of congressional seats held by particular parties changes regularly.[222]
Brazilian law is based on the civil law legal system[223] and civil law concepts prevail over common law practice. Most of Brazilian law is codified, although non-codified statutes also represent a substantial part, playing a complementary role. Court decisions set out interpretive guidelines; however, they are seldom binding on other specific cases. Doctrinal works and the works of academic jurists have strong influence in law creation and in law cases. Judges and other judicial officials are appointed after passing entry exams.[219]
The legal system is based on the Federal Constitution, promulgated on 5 October 1988, and the fundamental law of Brazil. All other legislation and court decisions must conform to its rules.[224] As of July 2022, there have been 124 amendments.[225] The highest court is the Supreme Federal Court. States have their own constitutions, which must not contradict the Federal Constitution.[226] Municipalities and the Federal District have “organic laws” (leis orgânicas), which act in a similar way to constitutions.[227] Legislative entities are the main source of statutes, although in certain matters judiciary and executive bodies may enact legal norms.[14] Jurisdiction is administered by the judiciary entities, although in rare situations the Federal Constitution allows the Federal Senate to pass on legal judgments.[14] There are also specialized military, labor and electoral courts.[14]
The armed forces of Brazil are the largest in Latin America by active personnel and the largest in terms of military equipment.[228] The country was considered the 9th largest military power on the planet in 2021.[229][230] It consists of the Brazilian Army (including the Army Aviation Command), the Brazilian Navy (including the Marine Corps and Naval Aviation) and the Brazilian Air Force. Brazil’s conscription policy gives it one of the world’s largest military forces, estimated at more than 1.6 million reservists annually.[231] The Air Force is the largest in Latin America and has about 700 crewed aircraft in service and effective about 67,000 personnel.[232]
Numbering close to 236,000 active personnel,[233] the Brazilian Army has the largest number of armored vehicles in South America, including armored transports and tanks.[234] The states’ Military Police and the Military Firefighters Corps are described as an ancillary forces of the Army by the constitution, but are under the control of each state’s governor.[14]
An increasingly well-developed tool of Brazil’s foreign policy is providing aid as a donor to other developing countries.[242] Brazil does not just use its growing economic strength to provide financial aid, but it also provides high levels of expertise and most importantly of all, a quiet non-confrontational diplomacy to improve governance levels.[242] Total aid is estimated to be around $1 billion per year, which includes.[242] In addition, Brazil already managed a peacekeeping mission in Haiti ($350 million) and makes in-kind contributions to the World Food Programme ($300 million).[242] The scale of this aid places it on par with China and India.[242] The Brazilian South-South aid has been described as a “global model in waiting”.[243]
In Brazil, the Constitution establishes six different police agencies for law enforcement: Federal Police Department, Federal Highway Police, Federal Railroad Police, Federal, District and State Penal Police (included by the Constitutional Amendment No. 104, of 2019), Military Police and Civil Police. Of these, the first three are affiliated with federal authorities, the last two are subordinate to state governments and the Penal Police can be subordinated to the federal or state/district government. All police forces are overseen by the executive branch of the federal or state government.[14] The National Public Security Force also can act in public disorder situations arising anywhere in the country.[244]
The country has high levels of violent crime, such as gun violence and homicides. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated the number of 32 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest rates of homicide of the world.[245] The number considered acceptable by the WHO is about 10 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.[246] In 2018, Brazil had a record 63,880 murders.[247] However, there are differences between the crime rates in the Brazilian states. While in São Paulo the homicide rate registered in 2013 was 10.8 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, in Alagoas it was 64.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants.[248]
Brazil also has high levels of incarceration. It had the third largest prison population in the world of approximately 700,000 prisoners as of June 2014, which put it only behind the United States (2,228,424) and China (1,701,344).[249] The high number of prisoners eventually overloaded the Brazilian prison system, leading to a shortfall of about 200,000 accommodations.[250]
Human rights in Brazil include the right to life and freedom of speech; and condemnation of slavery and torture. The nation ratified the American Convention on Human Rights.[251] The 2017 Freedom in the World report by Freedom House gives Brazil a score of “2” for both political rights and civil liberties; “1” represents the most free, and “7”, the least.[252]However, the following human rights problems have been reported: torture of detainees and inmates by police and prison security forces; inability to protect witnesses involved in criminal cases; harsh conditions; prolonged pretrial detention and inordinate delays of trials; reluctance to prosecute as well as inefficiency in prosecuting government officials for corruption; violence and discrimination against women;[253] violence against children, including sexual abuse; human trafficking; police brutality;[254] discrimination against black and indigenous people;[255] failure to enforce labour laws; and child labour in the informal sector. Human rights violators often enjoy impunity.[256] According to UNESCO, “Brazil promotes a vast array of actions for the advancement and defense of human rights, even though it faces enormous social and economic inequalities”.[257]
Same-sex couples in Brazil have held nationwide marriage rights since May 2013.[258]
Brazil is a federation composed of 26 states, one federal district, and the 5,571 municipalities.[14] States have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the Federal government. They have a governor and a unicameral legislative body elected directly by their voters. They also have independent Courts of Law for common justice. Despite this, states have much less autonomy to create their own laws than in other federal states such as the United States. For example, criminal and civil laws can be voted by only the federal bicameral Congress and are uniform throughout the country.[14]
Municipalities, as the states, have autonomous administrations, collect their own taxes and receive a share of taxes collected by the federal and state government.[14] Each has an elected mayor and legislative body, but no separate Court of Law. Indeed, a Court of Law organized by the state can encompass many municipalities in a single justice administrative division called comarca (county).[14]
Brazil’s constitution also provides for the creation of federal territories, which are administrative divisions directly controlled by the federal government. However, there are currently no federal territories in the country, as the 1988 Constitution abolished the last three: Amapá and Roraima (which gained statehood status) and Fernando de Noronha, which became a state district of Pernambuco.[259][260]
Brazil’s diversified economy includes agriculture, industry and a wide range of services.[272] The large service sector accounts for about 72.7% of total GDP, followed by the industrial sector (20.7%), while the agriculture sector is by far the smallest, making up 6.6% of total GDP.[273]
The tertiary sector (trade and services) represented 75.8% of the country’s GDP in 2018, according to the IBGE. The service sector was responsible for 60% of GDP and trade for 13%. It covers commerce, transport, education, social and health services, research and development, sports activities, etc.[297][298] Micro and small businesses represent 30% of the country’s GDP. In the commercial sector, for example, they represent 53% of the GDP within the activities of the sector.[299]
Tourism in Brazil is a growing sector and key to the economies of several regions of the country. The country had 6.36 million visitors in 2015, ranking in terms of the international tourist arrivals as the main destination in South America and second in Latin America after Mexico.[300] Revenues from international tourists reached US$6 billion in 2010, showing a recovery from the 2008–2009 economic crisis.[301] Historical records of 5.4 million visitors and US$6.8 billion in receipts were reached in 2011.[302][303] In the list of world tourist destinations, in 2018, Brazil was the 48th most visited country, with 6.6 million tourists (and revenues of 5.9 billion dollars).[304]
In terms of the 2015 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI), which is a measurement of the factors that make it attractive to develop business in the travel and tourism industry of individual countries, Brazil ranked in the 28th place at the world’s level, third in the Americas, after Canada and United States.[306][307]Domestic tourism is a key market segment for the tourism industry in Brazil. In 2005, 51 million Brazilian nationals made ten times more trips than foreign tourists and spent five times more money than their international counterparts.[308] The main destination states in 2023 were São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Rio Grande do Sul.[309][310] The main source of tourists for the entire country is São Paulo state.[311] In terms of tourism revenues, the top earners by state were São Paulo and Bahia.[312] For 2005, the three main trip purposes were visiting friends and family (53.1%), sun and beach (40.8%), and cultural tourism (12.5%).[313]
The Brazilian Space Agency has the most advanced space program in Latin America, with significant resources to launch vehicles, and manufacture of satellites.[317] The country develops submarines and aircraft, as well as being involved in space research, having a Vehicle Launch Center Light and being the only country in the Southern Hemisphere to integrate a team building the well-known International Space Station (ISS).[318]
The country is also a pioneer in the search for oil in deep water, from where it extracts 73% of its reserves. Uranium is enriched at the Resende Nuclear Fuel Factory, mostly for research purposes (as Brazil obtains 88% of its electricity from hydroelectricity[319]) and the country’s first nuclear submarine is expected to be launched in 2029.[320]
Brazil is one of the three countries in Latin America[321] with an operational Synchrotron Laboratory, a research facility on physics, chemistry, material science and life sciences, and Brazil is the only Latin American country to have a semiconductor company with its own fabrication plant, the CEITEC.[322] According to the Global Information Technology Report 2009–2010 of the World Economic Forum, Brazil is the world’s 61st largest developer of information technology.[323] Brazil was ranked 50th in the Global Innovation Index in 2024, up from 66th in 2019.[324][325][326]
At the end of 2021 Brazil was the 2nd country in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (109.4 GW) and biomass (15.8 GW), the 7th country in the world in terms of installed wind power (21.1 GW) and the 14th country in the world in terms of installed solar power (13.0 GW)—on track to also become one of the top 10 in the world in solar energy.[340] At the end of 2021, Brazil was the 4th largest producer of wind energy in the world (72 TWh), behind only China, the United States and Germany, and the 11th largest producer of solar energy in the world (16.8 TWh).[341]
The main characteristic of the Brazilian energy matrix is that it is much more renewable than that of the world. While in 2019, the world matrix was only 14% made up of renewable energy, Brazil’s was at 45%. Petroleum and oil products made up 34.3% of the matrix; sugar cane derivatives, 18%; hydraulic energy, 12.4%; natural gas, 12.2%; firewood and charcoal, 8.8%; varied renewable energies, 7%; mineral coal, 5.3%; nuclear, 1.4%, and other non-renewable energies, 0.6%.[342]
In the electric energy matrix, the difference between Brazil and the world is even greater: while the world only had 25% of renewable electric energy in 2019, Brazil had 83%. The Brazilian electric matrix was composed of: hydraulic energy, 64.9%; biomass, 8.4%; wind energy, 8.6%; solar energy, 1%; natural gas, 9.3%; oil products, 2%; nuclear, 2.5%; coal and derivatives, 3.3%.[342] Brazil has the largest electricity sector in Latin America. Its capacity at the end of 2021 was 181,532 MW.[343]
As for oil, the Brazilian government has embarked on a program over the decades to reduce dependence on imported oil, which previously accounted for more than 70% of the country’s oil needs. Brazil became self-sufficient in oil in 2006–2007. In 2021, the country closed the year as the 7th oil producer in the world, with an average of close to three million barrels per day, becoming an exporter of the product.[344][345]
Brazilian roads are the primary carriers of freight and passenger traffic. The road system totaled 1,720,000 km (1,068,758 mi) in 2019.[348] The total of paved roads increased from 35,496 km (22,056 mi) in 1967 to 215,000 km (133,595 mi) in 2018.[349][350]
Brazil’s railway system has been declining since 1945, when emphasis shifted to highway construction. The country’s total railway track length was 30,576 km (18,999 mi) in 2015,[351] as compared with 31,848 km (19,789 mi) in 1970, making it the ninth largest network in the world. Most of the railway system belonged to the Federal Railroad Network Corporation (RFFSA), which was privatized in 2007.[352] The São Paulo Metro began operating on 14 September 1974 as the first underground transit system in Brazil.[353]
There are about 2,500 airports in Brazil, including landing fields: the second-largest number in the world, after the United States.[354]São Paulo–Guarulhos International Airport, near São Paulo, is the largest and busiest airport with nearly 43 million passengers annually, while handling the vast majority of commercial traffic for the country.[355][356]
For freight transport, waterways are of importance. The industrial zones of Manaus can be reached only by means of the Solimões–Amazonas waterway (3,250 kilometers or 2,020 miles in length, with a minimum depth of six meters or 20 feet). The country also has 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) of waterways.[357] Coastal shipping links widely separated parts of the country. Bolivia and Paraguay have been given free ports at Santos. Of the 36 deep-water ports, Santos, Itajaí, Rio Grande, Paranaguá, Rio de Janeiro, Sepetiba, Vitória, Suape, Manaus and São Francisco do Sul are the most important.[358] Bulk carriers have to wait up to 18 days before being serviced; container ships take 36.3 hours on average.[359]
According to the latest official projection, it is estimated that Brazil’s population was 210,862,983 on July 1, 2022—an adjustment of 3.9% from the initial figure of 203 million reported by the 2022 census.[360] The population of Brazil, as recorded by the 2008 PNAD, was approximately 190 million[361] (22.31 inhabitants per square kilometer or 57.8/sq mi), with a ratio of men to women of 0.95:1[362] and 83.75% of the population defined as urban.[363] The population is heavily concentrated in the Southeastern (79.8 million inhabitants) and Northeastern (53.5 million inhabitants) regions, while the two most extensive regions, the Center-West and the North, which together make up 64.12% of the Brazilian territory, have a total of only 29.1 million inhabitants.
The first census in Brazil was carried out in 1872 and recorded a population of 9,930,478.[364] From 1880 to 1930, 4 million Europeans arrived.[365] Brazil’s population increased significantly between 1940 and 1970, because of a decline in the mortality rate, even though the birth rate underwent a slight decline. In the 1940s the annual population growth rate was 2.4%, rising to 3.0% in the 1950s and remaining at 2.9% in the 1960s, as life expectancy rose from 44 to 54 years[366] and to 72.6 years in 2007.[367] It has been steadily falling since the 1960s, from 3.04% per year between 1950 and 1960 to 1.05% in 2008 and is expected to fall to a negative value of –0.29% by 2050[368] thus completing the demographic transition.[369]
According to the 2022 Brazilian census, 45.3% of the population (92.1 million) described themselves as Pardo (meaning brown or multiracial), 43.5% (88.2 million) as White, 10.2% (20.7 million) as Black, 0.6% (1.2 million) as Indigenous and 0.4% (850 thousand) as East Asian (officially called yellow or amarela).[371]
Since the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500, considerable genetic mixing between Amerindians, Europeans, and Africans has taken place in all regions of the country:
European ancestry being dominant according to all autosomal studies undertaken covering the population, accounting for between 60% and 65% of the average genetic makeup of the Brazilian population.[372][373][374][375]
African ancestry among the Brazilians is estimated at 20% to 25% of the average genetic makeup[374][376][377]
Indigenous ancestry is significant and present in all regions of Brazil, accounting for around 15% to 20% of the average genetic ancestry of Brazilians.[376][378][379][380][381][382][383]
From the 19th century, Brazil opened its borders to immigration. About five million people from over 60 countries migrated to Brazil between 1808 and 1972, most of them of Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, German, English, Ukrainian, Polish, Jewish, African, Armenian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arab origin.[384][385][386] Brazil has the second-largest Jewish community in both Latin and South America after Argentina making up 0.06% of its population.[387] Outside of the Arab world, Brazil also has the largest population of Arab ancestry in the world, with 15–20 million people.[388][389] According to Brazil’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Brazil is home to a Lebanese diaspora of 7 million to 10 million, surpassing the population of Lebanese individuals residing in Lebanon.[390]
Brazilian society is more markedly divided by social class lines, although a high income disparity is found between race groups, so racism and classism often overlap. The brown population (officially called pardo in Portuguese, also colloquially moreno)[391][392] is a broad category that includes caboclos (assimilated Amerindians in general, and descendants of Whites and Natives), mulatos (descendants of primarily Whites and Afro-Brazilians) and cafuzos (descendants of Afro-Brazilians and Natives).[391][392][393][394][395] Higher percents of Blacks, mulattoes and tri-racials can be found in the eastern coast of the Northeastern region from Bahia to Paraíba[395][396] and also in northern Maranhão,[397][398] southern Minas Gerais[399] and eastern Rio de Janeiro.[395][399]
People of considerable Amerindian ancestry form the majority of the population in the Northern, Northeastern and Center-Western regions.[400] In 2007, the National Indian Foundation estimated that Brazil has 67 different uncontacted tribes, up from their estimate of 40 in 2005. Brazil is believed to have the largest number of uncontacted peoples in the world.[401]
Christianity is the country’s predominant faith, with Roman Catholicism being its largest denomination. Brazil has the world’s largest Catholic population.[402][403] According to the 2010 demographic census (the PNAD survey does not inquire about religion), 64.63% of the population followed Roman Catholicism; 22.2% Protestantism; 2.0% Kardecist spiritism; 3.2% other religions, undeclared or undetermined; while 8.0% had no religion.[404] In 2019, it was estimated that 50% were Roman Catholic; 31% Protestant; 11% irreligious; 3% Spiritist; 2% practitioners of Afro-Brazilian faiths; and 0.3% Jewish.[405] In another 2020 study by the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA), Christians made up 90.77% of the population; among Christians, 70.57% were Roman Catholic; 15.12% Protestant; 12.23% Independents, 0.12% Orthodox, and 0.09% unaffiliated Christian.[406] Kardecist spiritism was the second-largest religion practiced in Brazil as ARDA’s 2020 study, with 4.83% of the population. Of its 3.03% irreligious population, 2.59% were agnostic and 0.44% atheist.[406]
Religion in Brazil was formed from the meeting of the Roman Catholic Church with the religious traditions of enslaved African peoples and indigenous peoples.[407] This confluence of faiths during the Portuguese colonization of Brazil led to the development of a diverse array of syncretistic practices within the overarching umbrella of Brazilian Catholic Church, characterized by traditional Portuguese festivities.[408]
Religious pluralism increased during the 20th century,[409] and the Protestant community had grown to include over 22% of the population by 2010.[410] The most common Protestant denominations are EvangelicalPentecostal ones. Other Protestant branches with a notable presence in the country include the Baptists, Seventh-day Adventists, Lutherans and the Reformed tradition.[411] In recent decades, Protestantism, particularly in forms of Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism, has spread in Brazil, while the proportion of Catholics had dropped significantly during the 2010s.[412] As they have spread throughout Brazil, many have even been deeply involved in Brazilian and international politics,[413][414] and Evangelical Protestant influence has been implicated in the 2022 Brazilian coup plot.[415]
After Protestantism, individuals professing no religion are also a significant group, having exceeded 8% of the population according to the 2010 census. The cities of Boa Vista, Salvador, and Porto Velho have the greatest proportion of Irreligious residents in Brazil. Teresina, Fortaleza, and Florianópolis were the most Roman Catholic in the country.[416]Greater Rio de Janeiro, not including the city proper, is the most irreligious and least Roman Catholic Brazilian periphery, while Greater Porto Alegre and Greater Fortaleza are on the opposite sides of the lists, respectively.[416]
In October 2009, the Brazilian Senate approved and enacted by the President of Brazil in February 2010, an agreement with the Vatican, in which the Legal Statute of the Catholic Church in Brazil is recognized.[417][418]
The Brazilian public health system, the Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde – SUS), is managed and provided by all levels of government,[419] being the largest system of this type in the world.[420] On the other hand, private healthcare systems play a complementary role.[421] Public health services are universal and offered to all citizens of the country for free. However, the construction and maintenance of health centers and hospitals are financed by taxes, and the country spends about 9% of its GDP on expenditures in the area. In 2012, Brazil had 1.85 doctors and 2.3 hospital beds for every 1,000 inhabitants.[422][423]
Despite all the progress made since the creation of the universal health care system in 1988, there are still several public health problems in Brazil. In 2006, the main points to be solved were the high infant (2.51%) and maternal mortality rates (73.1 deaths per 1000 births).[424]
The number of deaths from noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases (151.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants) and cancer (72.7 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants), also has a considerable impact on the health of the Brazilian population. Finally, external but preventable factors such as car accidents, violence and suicide caused 14.9% of all deaths in the country.[424] The Brazilian health system was ranked 125th among the 191 countries evaluated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2000.[425]
The Federal Constitution and the Law of Guidelines and Bases of National Education determine that the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities must manage and organize their respective education systems. Each of these public educational systems is responsible for its own maintenance, which manages funds as well as the mechanisms and funding sources. The constitution reserves 25% of the state budget and 18% of federal taxes and municipal taxes for education.[426]
According to the IBGE, in 2019, the literacy rate of the population was 93.4%, meaning that 11.3 million (6.6% of population) people are still illiterate in the country, with some states such as Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina reaching around 97% of literacy rate;[427] functional illiteracy has reached 21.6% of the population.[428] Illiteracy is higher in the Northeast, where 13.87% of the population is illiterate, while the South, has 3.3% of its population illiterate.[429][427]
Brazil’s private institutions tend to be more exclusive and offer better quality education, so many high-income families send their children there. The result is a segregated educational system that reflects extreme income disparities and reinforces social inequality. However, efforts to change this are making impacts.[430] The University of São Paulo is often considered the best in Brazil and Latin America.[431][432] Of the top 20 Latin American universities, eight are Brazilian. Most of them are public. Attending an institution of higher education is required by Law of Guidelines and Bases of Education. Kindergarten, elementary and medium education are required of all students.[433]
The official language of Brazil is Portuguese (Article 13 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Brazil), which almost all of the population speaks and is virtually the only language used in newspapers, radio, television, and for business and administrative purposes. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas, making the language an important part of Brazilian national identity and giving it a national culture distinct from those of its Spanish-speaking neighbors.[434]
The 2002 sign language law[437] requires government authorities and public agencies to accept and provide information in Língua Brasileira dos Sinais or “LIBRAS”, the Brazilian Sign Language, while a 2005 presidential edict[438] extends this to require teaching of the language as a part of the education and speech and language pathology curricula. LIBRAS teachers, instructors and translators are recognized professionals. Schools and health services must provide access (“inclusion“) to deaf people.[439]
Minority languages are spoken throughout the nation. One hundred and eighty Amerindian languages are spoken in remote areas and a significant number of other languages are spoken by immigrants and their descendants.[436] In the municipality of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Nheengatu (a currently endangered creole language with Tupi lexicon and Portuguese-based grammar that, together with its southern relative língua geral paulista, once was a major lingua franca in Brazil),[440][excessive detail?]Baniwa and Tucano languages had been granted co-official status with Portuguese.[441]
There are significant communities of German (mostly the Brazilian Hunsrückisch, a High German language dialect) and Italian (mostly the Talian, a Venetian dialect) origins in the Southern and Southeastern regions, whose ancestors’ native languages were carried along to Brazil, and which, still alive there, are influenced by the Portuguese language.[442][443] Talian is officially a historic patrimony of Rio Grande do Sul,[444] and two German dialects possess co-official status in a few municipalities.[445] Italian is also recognized as ethnic language in Santa Teresa and Vila Velha, in the state of Espírito Santo, and is taught as mandatory second language at school.[citation needed]
According to IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) urban areas already concentrate 84.35% of the population, while the Southeast region remains the most populated one, with over 80 million inhabitants.[446] The largest urban agglomerations in Brazil are São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Belo Horizonte—all in the Southeastern Region—with 21.1, 12.3, and 5.1 million inhabitants respectively.[447][448][449] The majority of state capitals are the largest cities in their states, except for Vitória, the capital of Espírito Santo, and Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina.[450]
Some aspects of Brazilian culture were influenced by the contributions of Italian, German and other European as well as Japanese, Jewish and Arab immigrants who arrived in large numbers in the South and Southeast of Brazil during the 19th and 20th centuries.[456] The indigenous Amerindians influenced Brazil’s language and cuisine; and the Africans influenced language, cuisine, music, dance and religion.[457]
The architecture of Brazil is influenced by Europe, especially Portugal. It has a history that goes back 500 years to the time, when Pedro Álvares Cabral landed in Brazil in 1500. Portuguese colonial architecture was the first wave of architecture to go to Brazil.[461] It is the basis for all Brazilian architecture of later centuries.[462] In the 19th century, during the time of the Empire of Brazil, the country followed European trends and adopted Neoclassical and Gothic Revival architecture. Then, in the 20th century, especially in Brasília, Brazil experimented with modernist architecture.
The colonial architecture of Brazil dates to the early 16th century, when Brazil was first explored, conquered and settled by the Portuguese. The Portuguese built architecture familiar to them in Europe in their aim to colonize Brazil. They built Portuguese colonial architecture, which included churches and civic architecture, including houses and forts, in Brazilian cities and the countryside.[463]
During the 19th century, Brazilian architecture saw the introduction of more European styles to Brazil, such as Neoclassical and Gothic Revival architecture. This was usually mixed with Brazilian influences from their own heritage.[463] In the 1950s modernist architecture was introduced when Brasília was built as a new federal capital in the interior of Brazil to help develop the interior. The architect Oscar Niemeyer idealized and built government buildings, churches and civic buildings in the modernist style.[464]
The music of Brazil was formed mainly from the fusion of European, Native Indigenous, and African elements.[465] Until the nineteenth century, Portugal was the gateway to most of the influences that built Brazilian music, although many of these elements were not of Portuguese origin, but generally European. The first was José Maurício Nunes Garcia, author of sacred pieces with an influence of Viennese classicism.[466] The major contribution of the African element was the rhythmic diversity and some dances and instruments.[465]
Popular music since the late eighteenth century, samba was considered the most typical and on the UNESCO cultural heritage list.[467]Samba-reggae, Maracatu, Frevo and Afoxê are four music traditions that have been popularized by their appearance in the annual Brazilian Carnivals.[468]Capoeira is usually played with its own music referred to as capoeira music, which is usually considered to be a call-and-response type of folk music.[469]Forró is a type of folk music prominent during the Festa Junina in northeastern Brazil.[470] Jack A. Draper III, a professor of Portuguese at the University of Missouri,[471] argues that Forró was used as a way to subdue feelings of nostalgia for a rural lifestyle.[472]
Choro is a popular musical instrumental style. Its origins are in 19th-century Rio de Janeiro. The style often has a fast and happy rhythm, characterized by subtle modulations and full of syncopation and counterpoint.[473]Bossa nova is also a well-known style of Brazilian music developed and popularized in the 1950s and 1960s.[474] The phrase “bossa nova” means literally ‘new trend’.[475] A lyrical fusion of samba and jazz, bossa nova acquired a large following starting in the 1960s.[476] Some international Brazilian music artists are, for example: Carmen Miranda, Tom Jobim, João Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, Eumir Deodato, Kaoma, Sepultura, Olodum and CSS.
Brazilian literature dates back to the 16th century, to the writings of the first Portuguese explorers in Brazil, such as Pero Vaz de Caminha, filled with descriptions of fauna, flora and commentary about the indigenous population that fascinated European readers.[477]
Brazil’s most significant literary award is the Camões Prize, which it shares with the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world. As of 2016, Brazil has eleven recipients of the prize.[486] Brazil also holds its own literary academy, the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a non-profit cultural organization aimed at perpetuating the care of the national language and literature.[487]
The Brazilian film industry began in the late 19th century, during the early days of the Belle Époque. While there were national film productions during the early 20th century, American films such as Rio the Magnificent were made in Rio de Janeiro to promote tourism in the city.[488] The films Limite (1931) and Ganga Bruta (1933), the latter being produced by Adhemar Gonzaga through the prolific studio Cinédia, were poorly received at release and failed at the box office, but are acclaimed nowadays and placed among the finest Brazilian films of all time.[489] The 1941 unfinished film It’s All True was divided into four segments, two of which were filmed in Brazil and directed by Orson Welles; it was originally produced as part of the United States’ Good Neighbor Policy during Getúlio Vargas’ Estado Novo government.
The French Artistic Mission arrived in Brazil in 1816 proposing the creation of an art academy modeled after the respected Académie des Beaux-Arts, with graduation courses both for artists and craftsmen for activities such as modeling, decorating, carpentry and others and bringing artists such as Jean-Baptiste Debret.[495]
Upon the creation of the Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, new artistic movements spread across the country during the 19th century and later the event called Modern Art Week broke with academic tradition in 1922 and started a nationalist trend which was influenced by modernist arts.[496]
The theatre in Brazil has its origins in the period of Jesuit expansion, when theater was used for the dissemination of Catholic doctrine in the 16th century. In the 17th and 18th centuries, dramatists on the scene of European derivation were for court or private performances.[498] During the 19th century, the playwrights Antônio Gonçalves Dias and Luís Carlos Martins Pena were known for their performance.[499] There were also numerous operas and orchestras. The Brazilian conductor Antônio Carlos Gomes became internationally known with operas such as Il Guarany. At the end of the 19th century, orchestrated dramaturgias were accompanied with songs of famous artists such as the conductress Chiquinha Gonzaga.[500]
Already in the early 20th century there was the presence of theaters, entrepreneurs and actor companies. In 1940, Paschoal Carlos Magno and his student’s theater, the comedians group and the Italian actors Adolfo Celi, Ruggero Jacobbi and Aldo Calvo, founders of the Teatro Brasileiro de Comédia, renewed the Brazilian theater. From the 1960s, it was attended by a theater dedicated to social and religious issues. The most prominent authors at this stage were Jorge Andrade and Ariano Suassuna.[499]
Brazilian cuisine varies greatly by region, reflecting the country’s varying mix of indigenous and immigrant populations. This has created a national cuisine marked by the preservation of regional differences.[501] Some of the most well known Brazilian foods are the Feijoada, considered the country’s national dish;[502] and Churrasco, a kind of barbecue which is often served in rodízio style. Other regional foods include beijú, feijão tropeiro, vatapá, moqueca, polenta (from Italian cuisine) and acarajé (from African cuisine).[503] The national beverage is coffee; cachaça is Brazil’s native liquor. Cachaça is distilled from sugar cane and is the main ingredient in the national cocktail, Caipirinha.[504]
A typical meal consists mostly of rice and beans with beef, salad, french fries and a fried egg.[505] Often, it is mixed with cassava flour (farofa). Fried potatoes, fried cassava, fried banana, fried meat and fried cheese are very often eaten in lunch and served in most typical restaurants.[506] Popular snacks are pastel (a fried pastry); coxinha (a variation of chicken croquete); pão de queijo (cheese bread and cassava flour / tapioca); pamonha (corn and milk paste); esfirra (a variation of Lebanese pastry); kibbeh (from Arabic cuisine); empanada (pastry) and empada, little salt pies filled with shrimps or heart of palm.
The Brazilian press was officially born in Rio de Janeiro on 13 May 1808 with the creation of the Royal Printing National Press by the Prince RegentDom João.[509] The Gazeta do Rio de Janeiro, the first newspaper published in the country, began to circulate on 10 September 1808.[510] The largest newspapers nowadays are Folha de S.Paulo, Super Notícia, O Globo and O Estado de S. Paulo.[511]
Radio broadcasting began on 7 September 1922, with a speech by then President Pessoa, and was formalized on 20 April 1923 with the creation of the “Radio Society of Rio de Janeiro”.[512] Television in Brazil began officially on 18 September 1950, with the founding of TV Tupi by Assis Chateaubriand.[513] Since then, television has grown in the country, creating large commercial broadcast networks such as Globo, SBT, RecordTV, Bandeirantes and RedeTV. Today it is the most important factor in the popular culture of Brazilian society, as indicated by research showing that as much as 67%[514][515] of the general population follow the same daily telenovela broadcast.
By the mid-1960s, Brazilian universities had installed mainframe computers from IBM and Burroughs Large Systems. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Brazilian government restricted foreign imports to protect the local manufacturing of computers. In the 1980s, Brazil produced half of the computers sold in the country. By 2009, the mobile phone and Internet use in Brazil was the fifth largest in the world.[516]
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