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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: 'Brasil' or República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest and most populous country in South America, and fifth largest in the world in both area and population. Spanning a vast area between central South America and the Atlantic Ocean, it is the easternmost country of America and it borders Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and the French department of French Guiana. In fact, it borders every South American nation except for Ecuador and Chile.

The country's name is generally believed to be derived from pau-brasil (brazilwood), a tree highly valued by early colonists, though some credit the name to a mythical land mentioned in Europe during Middle Ages. Brazil is home to both extensive agricultural lands and rain forests. Exploring vast natural resources and a large labor pool, it is South America's leading economic power and a regional leader.

Brazilian society is still heavily influenced by Portugal's 300 year colonization. Portuguese is the official language, and the Roman Catholic religion is adopted by most of its people, with a number of adherents never seen in any other country. The population is composed mainly of descendants from european immigrants and africans brought during the slavery times.

After Independence from Portugal in 1822, Brazil became a monarchy until a military coup deposed the emperor and established a republic in 1889. Since then the country suffered two more coups (in 1930 and 1964). In the 1980's the military regime ended and a new constitution was established, opening the way to the Brazilians' return to democracy.

Currently Brazil's greatest challenge is to reactivate its economy, which was once one of the most thriving in the world but had many problems in the last 20-30 years, while dealing with serious issues that plague many of its inhabitants, like poverty, hunger and crime.

History of Brazil

Brazil is thought to have been inhabited for at least 100,000 years by semi-nomadic populations before the first Portuguese explorers, led by Pedro Álvares Cabral, disembarked in 1500. Over the next three centuries, it was resettled by the Portuguese and exploited mainly for brazilwood (Pau-Brasil) at first, followed by sugarcane (Cana-de-Açúcar) agriculture, coffee beans and gold mining. The colony's source of manpower was initially composed of enslaved Amerindians, and after 1550, mainly African. In 1808, Queen Maria I of Portugal and her son and regent, the future João VI of Portugal, fleeing from the armies of Napoleon, relocated to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with the royal family, nobility and government. This is the only recorded trans-continental relocation of a royal family.

Read more at Wikipedia.org