Brasil

The Federative Republic of Brazil is the largest country in South America, having borders with most of South American countries except Ecuador and Chile. Except for a small amount of islands, it is constituted by a whole and continuous territorial extension. Brazil’s land area of over 8.5 million square kilometres makes it the fifth largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, China and USA.

The climate varies according to the terrain and latitude. Being in the Southern Hemisphere, Brazil has its winter from June to August. The Amazon basin has a tropical climate with high temperatures, rainfall and humidity. The Brazilian Highlands in the South and South East along the Atlantic coast are cooler and drier, having frequent frosts and snow. The central plateau is more temperate and contains rolling grasslands like the Pampas of Argentina, although it can still snow and some regions are also classed as sub-tropical.

The population of Brazil was 184.101.109 in July 2004. Given the colonial history of Brazil, there is a rich ethnic mix of white 55% (mainly of European, mostly Portuguese origin), mixed white and black or “mulatos” 38%, black 6% and the remaining 1% Indian, South East Asian or Arab in origin. With the exception of the Indian population, Brazilians consider themselves as one people with a single culture. This unusual assimilation of such diverse ethnic groups has been attributed to Brazil's colonial and immediate post-colonial history with the more recent distinctly and uniquely Brazilian cultural ties of music and dance, religion and sport.