Brazil

Brazil (officially the Federative Republic of Brazil) is a South American country and the giant of Latin America. It's neighboring all the countries of South America, except Ecuador and  Chile.

Brazil is not as popular as United States or Russia, but he still has a place in fans hearts.

Appearance
He's often represented wearing a black or dark blue cap, with a hairstyle similar to that of Jamaica, and with a yellow football jersey or a simple t-shirt, along with shorts and sneakers.

Personality
Brazil is known for being very relaxed, playful and friendly, dancing and partying despite their problems. Still, he tends to be quite self-deprecating; but if someone badmouths him, he will be in terrible anger. He loves soccer and is quite popular among his friends for being incredibly good at the sport.

Interests
Football, Carnival, samba, typical Brazilian foods (like feijoada, caipirinha and brigadeiro).

Flag Meaning
In Brazil, many believe that the green background and the yellow diamant on the Brazilian flag represent the green of the forests and the yellow of the gold, but in fact, these colors represent, respectively, the houses of Bragança and Habsburg; it's a reminiscence of the Imperial flag used until 1889. The blue circle was later added to represent the newly established republic. The 27 stars represent all the federated states and the District of Brasilia; the way they are arranged correspond to how they were seen in the Brazil sky on the day of the Proclamation of the Republic. The white band displays the motto "''ORDEM E PROGRESSO" = order and progress. ''

Other symbols
"Ordem e Progresso" is the motto of the country which you can see on the flag.

The "Hino Nacional Brasileiro" ("Brazilian National Anthem") was composed by Francisco Manuel da Silva in 1831, the lyrics were written in 1909 by Joaquim Osório Duque Estrada. It talks about the love of the country.

Colony
Brazil was discovered in 1500, when a fleet commanded by the Portuguese diplomat Pedro Álvares Cabral, on it's way to India, landed in Porto Seguro. Once they arrived, they met whit the Tumpinamba Indians, who were one of the various Tupi ethnic groups that inhabited present-day Brazil before the conquest of the region by Portuguese colonial settlers. Libon's goals at the time simply monopolized the lucrative trade of pau-brasil, the redwood (valued for making dye) that gave the colony its name and establish permanent settlements. There's evidence that the Indians and Portuguese initially worked together to harvest trees. Later, the need to head farther inland to find forested areas made the pau-brasil trade less desirable. The interest in establishing plantations on cleared lands increased and so did the need for laborers. The Portuguese tried to enslave Indians, but, unaccustomed to toiling long hours in fields and overcome by European diseases, many natives either fled far inland or died. (When Cabral arrived, the indigenous population was believed to have been more than 3 million; today the number is scarcely more than 200,000.) The Portuguese then turned to the African slave trade for their workforce.

Curiosity: As a colony, Brazil was invaded by multiple countries, for example, Britain, France, Netherlands, etc, which is one of the reasons that explain the miscegenation of the country.

Empire
The period of Brazilian history that began with the Proclamation of Independence in 1822 and ended with the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889 became known as the Brazil Empire. This was the first form of government adopted in the independent country, and two emperors commanded the country in the period, D. Pedro I and D. Pedro II.

There was also between the two reigns the Regencial period because D. Pedro II was still a child when his father returned to Portugal. This moment of Empire Brazil was one of the tensest thanks to the various wars that took place in the country, especially with separatist bias.

Another characteristic point of the Brazilian reigns was the maintenance of slavery, even with various internal and external pressures to abolish it. It was not until 1888 that there was abolition, which also represented the end of the Empire due to its social support base being built on the great slaveholding landlords.

In the economic aspect, coffee emerged as the main source of income for Brazil, making the country become the main supplier of this product in the world market.

Military dictatorship
The military dictatorship is the political regime in which members of a country's Armed Forces politically and administratively centralize state power in their hands, denying most citizens participation and decision-making in state institutions. Military dictatorship in Brazil, the most recent period of military dictatorship occurred between 1964 and 1985. With the argument of avoiding the holding of a communist dictatorship in Brazil during the Cold War, the Brazilian Armed Forces carried out a coup d'état on 31 March 1964, which ousted President João Goulart. Elected as vice president in 1960, Jango (as he was known) took power following the resignation of Janio Quadros in 1961.

Republic
The Proclamation of the Brazilian Republic was a military-political coup d'état, which took place on November 15, 1889, which established the presidential republican form of government in Brazil, ending the Empire's parliamentary constitutional monarchy and thus dismissing the then head of government. Emperor D. Pedro II, who was later ordered to go into exile in Europe. The proclamation took place at Praça da Aclamation (now Praça da República), in the city of Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the Empire of Brazil, when a group of Brazilian army soldiers, led by Marshal Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca, dismissed the emperor and took over. power in the country by establishing a provisional republican government, which would become the First Brazilian Republic.

Government
The Brazilian Policy operates under the model of presidential federative republic, formed by the Union, the states, the Federal District and the municipalities, the exercise of power is attributed to distinct and independent bodies, subject to a control system to ensure compliance with laws and the Constitution. Brazil is a republic because the head of state is elected by the people by mandate. It is presidential because the president of the republic is head of state and also head of government. It is federative because among federatives they have political autonomy.

The Union is divided into three powers, independent and harmonious with each other. They are the legislature, which makes laws; the executive, who performs programs or provides public service; and the judiciary, which resolves conflicts between citizens, entities and the state.

Brazil has a multi-party system, that is, it allows the legal formation of several political parties. These are voluntary associations of people who share the same ideals, interests, goals and political doctrines, which aim to influence and be part of political power.

In 1980, political scientist Sérgio coined the term "coalition presidentialism" to define the working mechanism of the Brazilian political-institutional regime. Coalition presidentialism designates the reality of a presidential country in which the fragmentation of parliamentary power among various parties forces the executive to a practice that is often more associated with parliamentarism. According to Arranches, even directly elected, the President of the Republic, becomes hostage of Congress.

Geography
Located in South America, Brazil occupies an area of 8,514,215 square kilometers (3,287,357 square miles), being the 5th largest country in the world and occupying half of the subcontinent in which it is.

The country is subdivided in 25 states and 1 Federal District, who is:
 * Acre (Capital: Rio Branco)
 * Alagoas (Capital: Maceió)
 * Amapá (Capital: Macapá)
 * Amazonas (Capital: Manaus)
 * Bahia (Capital: Salvador)
 * Ceará (Capital: Fortaleza)
 * Distrito Federal (It's the Federal District)
 * Espírito Santo (Capital: Vitória)
 * Goiás (Capital: Goiânia)
 * Maranhão (Capital: São Luís)
 * Mato Grosso (Capital: Cuiabá)
 * Mato Grosso do Sul (Capital: Campo Grande)
 * Minas Gerais (Capital: Belo Horizonte)
 * Pará (Capital: Belém)
 * Paraíba (Capital: João Pessoa)
 * Paraná (Capital: Curitiba)
 * Pernambuco (Capital: Recife)
 * Piauí (Capital: Teresina)
 * Rio de Janeiro (Capital: Rio de Janeiro)
 * Rio Grande do Norte (Capital: Natal)
 * Rio Grande do Sul (Capital: Porto Alegre)
 * Rondônia (Capital: Porto Velho)
 * Roraima (Capital: Boa Vista)
 * Santa Catarina (Capital: Florianópolis)
 * São Paulo (Capital: São Paulo)
 * Sergipe (Capital: Aracaju)
 * Tocantins (Capital: Palmas)

Family

 * Portugal - Father
 * Spain - Stepmother/aunt
 * Bolivia - Stepfather/uncle or cousin (depends on the person)
 * United States - Cousin
 * Argentina  - Cousin-wife (depends on the person)
 * Paraguay - Stepson/stepdaughter
 * Uruguay - Son/daughter
 * Angola - Brother/sister
 * Mozambique - Brother/sister
 * Guinea Bissau - Sister/brother
 * Cape Verde- Brother/sister
 * East Timor - Brother/sister

Friends

 * China - Great trading partner
 * Costa Rica - Bananas
 * Portugal - Close friend/father
 * United States – Close friend
 * Canada - Friend
 * Chile - Friend

Neutral

 * Portugal
 * Germany -
 * Bulgaria -Hmmmmm looks familiar
 * Mexico - Friend
 * Paraguay - Hue, I think you remember!...
 * Ecuador

Enemies

 * Venezuela - Complicated

Past Versions

 * Empire of Brazil
 * Brazilian Military Government

United States
We help each other, both in history and now!