Multimedia Mania/abacus-multimedia-mania.iso/dp/0015/00153.txt

Text File | 1993-07-27 | 45KB | 774 lines

$Unique_ID{bob00153}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Brazil
The History}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Embassy of Brazil, Washington DC}
$Affiliation{Embassy of Brazil, Washington DC}
$Subject{brazil
city
portugal
sao
new
portuguese
president
brasilia
first
government
see
tables
}
$Date{1990}
$Log{See Table 4.*0015301.tab
See Table 5.*0015302.tab
}
Title:       Brazil
Book:        Brazil in Brief
Author:      Embassy of Brazil, Washington DC
Affiliation: Embassy of Brazil, Washington DC
Date:        1990

The History

Portuguese Discoveries

     In the 15th and 16th centuries Portugal, a small Iberian Kingdom with
barely a million inhabitants, was hemmed in by the Atlantic in front and a
hostile Castile behind. After years of struggle against the Moorish
occupation, the Portuguese turned their attention and energy to the sea and
what lay beyond. While the Spaniards set out in search of a route to the
Orient by voyaging to the West, the Portuguese opted for the so-called
"Southern Cycle" down the African coast. Reaching the Cape of Good Hope in
1487, they were led by the famous navigator Vasco da Gama across the Indian
Ocean to discover the sea route to the Far East in 1497. They knew of the
existence of lands across the Atlantic and they had made several expeditions
to the West before Columbus discovered the Antilles in 1492. But they had kept
the knowledge to themselves in order to forestall the ambitions of Spain,
England and France. Secrecy was the only method available to a small nation of
safeguarding the rewards of bold and successful exploration against
exploitation by more powerful maritime rivals.

The Line of Tordesillas

     The Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) settled the question of possession of
the new lands: it was agreed that territories lying East of a meridian 370
leagues West of the Cape Verde Islands should belong to Portugal, the lands to
the West to Spain. This imaginary line, from pole to pole, cut through the
easternmost part of the South American continent and constituted Brazil's
first frontier, although the formal discovery by Pedro Alvares Cabral did not
take place until six years later in 1500.

First Settlements

     Cabral's voyage was soon followed by other Portuguese expeditions. The
only exploitable wealth which the early explorers came across was the
dye-wood, Pau-Brasil (from which the country derived its name). Organized
occupation only began in 1530, when Portugal sent out the first colonists with
domestic animals, plants and seeds, to establish permanent settlements. The
existing small enclaves in the Northeast were consolidated. Sao Vicente on the
coast of the modern State of Sao Paulo was founded in 1532, and the city of
Salvador, later chosen as the seat of the Governors General, followed in 1549.
The land was sparsely inhabited by indian tribes, some peaceful and others,
especially in the interior, fierce and warlike. A Brazilian historian has
suggested that the English philosopher Sir Thomas Moore may have derived his
concept of Utopia from traveller's tales of the natives' idyllic life in the
Bahia forest glades. As more of the land was settled, a system of
administration became necessary. As a first step the Portuguese Crown created
a number of hereditary fiefs, or captaincies, consisting of stretches of
coastline of anything from 10-75 leagues (roughly 30-230 miles) together with
all their hinterlands as far as the "Line" (i.e., the meridian of
Tordesillas). Fourteen of these captaincies -- some larger than Portugal
itself -- were established in the mid 16th century, and the beneficiaries,
called "donatarios", were responsible for their defence and development. Some
of the early donatarios were men of ability and tenacity, and due to their
efforts the seaboard was colonized and the land cultivated. The captaincy
system lasted long enough to influence the basic territorial and political
pattern of modern Brazil.

First Plantations

     The moist and fertile seaboard of what is now the State of Pernambuco
was very suitable for growing sugar and conveniently located as a port of call
for sailing ships travelling from Portugal to West Africa and the Orient. A
flourishing triangular trade soon developed, based on the importation of slave
labour from West Africa to work in sugar plantations. The sugar was exported
to markets in Europe where rising demand was beginning to outrun supplies from
traditional sources. The sugar plant and the technique of its cultivation
reached Brazil from Madeira; and the Portuguese merchants had good commercial
relations with the Dutch, who provided the facilities for marketing the
product in northern Europe.

The Union of Spain and Portugal

     This development was interrupted by events in Europe. When King Sebastian
of Portugal died in 1578, Phillip II of Spain succeeded in his claim to the
vacant throne in Lisbon; and from 1580 to 1640 the two Peninsular kingdoms
were linked together under the Spanish crown. Thus, by the union of the two
countries, South America became in its entirety a Hispanic world.
Paradoxically, Portugal's 60 years of union with Spain were to confer
unexpected advantages on her transatlantic colony. In the absence of
boundaries -- the line of Tordesillas was no longer anything but a historical
reminiscence -- both Portuguese and Brazilians started penetrating deep into
the vast hinterlands. Cutting their way through forests, climbing the
difficult escarpments and marching across the inland plateau, they
expanded --  without realizing it -- the boundaries of the future independent
Brazil.

Territorial Expansion

     In 1640, when the Portuguese under John IV recovered their independence,
they refused to abandon the lands they had occupied and colonized west of the
original Tordesillas line. Claiming what has since become recognized in
international Law as the right of "uti possidetis" -- that is, the right
derived not only from occupation but also from "useful possession" -- the
Portuguese succeeded in establishing themselves as the rightful owners. The
frontiers that were later recognized for the Colony of Portugal were kept
after independence and gave Brazil -- peacefully -- about half of the South
American continent.

The Dutch Invasions

     A more immediate consequence of Spanish rule was Portugal's entry into
the Thirty Year's War with the Netherlands. Dutch naval and maritime power
succeeded in taking from Phillip II some of his dominions in Asia and the
Americas. Among the territories occupied by the Dutch were Pernambuco and its
neighbouring captaincies. The sugar-growing belt in northeastern Brazil was
held by the Dutch from 1630 until they were expelled by the colonists in 1654.
During these years they made a strong mark on the region culturally, socially
and racially. Examples of Dutch architecture are still to be seen in the 17th
century buildings in Recife. Many Brazilian family names have Dutch origins,
and the first landscape paintings of the New World to be seen in Europe were
scenes of the Northeast painted by Dutch artists. The second half of the 17th
century saw Portugal freed from Spanish rule and Brazil liberated from the
Dutch occupation (Battle of Guararapes). Both emerged from foreign intrusion
temporarily weakened. But in Brazil the decline of the sugar economy was
followed by a new surge of energy in another direction, as the colonists moved
outwards from the sugar region to occupy unexplored territories.

The Bandeirantes

     The main starting point for this exploration was the captaincy of Sao
Vicente, and it was from their base in Sao Paulo that the pioneers pushed
forward the frontier from the seaboard into the interior. Taking with them
herds of cattle and pigs, and stopping from time to time to plant maize and
other short season crops, the Bandeirantes would spend several years on
distant excursions. They were in part slave-hunting ventures, and the
Bandeirantes are known to have brought back with them indians captured from
the Jesuit missions in the Paraguay valley.

Gold Discovery

     The most important consequence of the expeditions was the discovery of
gold. It was first struck in the 1690s near the present day city of Ouro
Preto (Black Gold). While the gold rush which followed drained thousands of
people away from the coastal plantations, it also attracted fresh immigration
from Portugal. Other consequences were the growth of cattle farming in the
interior to provide meat and leather for the mining centres and the emergence
of new cities in what is now the state of Minas Gerais. Altogether, nearly
1,000 tons of gold and three million carats of diamonds were taken from the
region between 1700 and 1800. The growth of gold mining in Brazil was an
important development which influenced the course of events not only in the
colony but also in Europe. Although the gold was controlled by Portugal and
shipped to Lisbon, it did not remain in the metropolis. Under the Methuen
Treaty of 1703 with England, Portugal was committed to buy its textiles in
England. These were paid for with gold from Brazilian mines which thus found
its way to London, where it helped to finance the Industrial Revolution.

Coffee

     But the boom in gold and diamond mining, like that of sugar, was destined
to be followed by the rise of an even more important source of wealth: coffee.
And just as mining caused a migration of people from Pernambuco and Bahia
southwards to Minas Gerais, so the spread of coffee-growing advanced the
settlement of empty lands still further to the South. Coffee first reached
Brazil via French Guiana in the 18th century. The early plantations were in
regions well provided with slave labour in the hinterland of Rio de Janeiro,
but the abolition of slavery and European immigration into Sao Paulo state in
the late 19th century caused coffee growing to move southwards to the region
where soil conditions, climate and altitude combined to create an ideal
environment for this crop which made Brazil the biggest producer in the world.

Rio: The New Capital

     Another important event in the second half of the 18th century was the
transfer of the seat of colonial government. After more than 200 years in
Salvador, it was moved to Rio de Janeiro, where it dominated the main access
route to Minas Gerais and was closer to the growing population centres in the
southern regions of the colony.

The Feeling of Nationhood

     During the period of Portuguese rule, the role of the metropolis was
essentially that of intermediary between the colony as producer and the
European economic centres as consumers. Monopolizing all trade with Brazil,
Portugal retained a substantial part of the profits, and this led to growing
discontent among the settlers. Ever since the Dutch and French invasions of
the Northeast region at the beginning of the 17th century, there had been a
feeling of Brazilian nationalism which was developed by the fight to expel the
invaders: a struggle in which the settlers received little effective support
from the mother country which, at the time, was confronted with the problem of
her own survival as an independent nation.

Tiradentes

     The urge to secure political freedom began in the second half of the 18th
century and there were signs of unrest. The most significant of these
movements, the Conjuracao Mineira (Minas Conspiracy), took place in the centre
of what was by then the declining gold mining region, and was headed mainly by
intellectuals influenced by the same libertarian ideals as those which
inspired the French Encyclopaedists and Fathers of the American Revolution.
One of its leaders, Tiradentes, was later to become the symbol of the fight
for national independence. And it is interesting that the Conjuracao took
place in 1789, the year of the French Revolution, thereby taking its place
in history with other revolutionary movements of the late 18th century. Other
incidents, some of which had wide support, occurred in Pernambuco and Bahia,
where the decline of the sugar economy aggravated the problems created by the
country's subordination to Portugal. None of them, however, was important
enough to seriously undermine the Portuguese domination at the time.

Portuguese Court in Brazil

     The Independence of Brazil came about by more or less peaceful means. The
Portuguese Royal Family's move to Brazil in 1808, when Portugal was invaded by
Napoleon's armies, and the establishment of the Royal administration in the
colony for a period of 14 years, led to the acceleration of the process. In
1815 Brazil ceased to be a colony and became part of a United Kingdom with
Portugal. And it was in this capacity that the country achieved the historic
distinction of becoming the first American nation to take part in an
international conference, the Congress of Vienna, held that year.

The Proclamation of Independence

     In 1822, one year after the return of King Joao VI to Portugal, the
political independence of Brazil was officially proclaimed by his son, Prince
Pedro, who was also the heir to the Portuguese throne. Acting under pressure
from ruling sectors of colonial society, and with the agreement of his father
-- who had come to realize that Brazil would no longer tolerate the remote and
restraining rule of Lisbon -- Prince Pedro was crowned as the first Emperor of
independent Brazil. The independence was therefore not so much the separation
of a colony as the division of a united kingdom. While the Spanish
vice-royalties in America had to fight fiercely for their independence, to end
up as 18 different republics, Portugal and Brazil settle the matter in a
unique way. Brazil became an Empire under Dom Pedro I, who, nevertheless,
continued to be the heir to the Portuguese throne.

British Role

     With the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the supremacy of Great Britain as
a world economic power was confirmed; and the independence of Brazil, as well
as that of other Latin American countries which achieved self government at
about the same time, was encouraged and helped by the British. There were
powerful commercial interests in England anxious to trade directly with the
Americas. Both they and the colonists wanted to abolish the controls imposed
by the Spanish and Portuguese governments on the Peninsula. Under these
circumstances, British foreign policy, influenced and guided by Canning,
played an active and important role in securing diplomatic recognition of the
new Latin American states, and in particular that of Brazil.

Pedro I

     After political independence was proclaimed on September 7, 1822, by the
Prince Regent, Dom Pedro, he was duly named Emperor of Brazil and crowned the
following January. He was one of the most striking and colourful personalities
of his time. He made an important contribution to the acceleration of the
social and political evolution of the 19th century by granting Brazil (1824)
and Portugal (1826) constitutional charters which were extremely advanced for
the time, and broke the taboos of the Divine Right of Kings. In 1826, on the
death of Joao VI, his father, Dom Pedro inherited his kingdom. But he
abdicated the Portuguese throne soon after in favour of his infant daughter,
Maria da Gloria, who became Queen Maria II. In 1831, he abdicated the throne
of Brazil in favour of his son, Dom Pedro II, who was still a minor. This
decision, prompted in part by differences with the Brazilian Parliament, was
also motivated by an adventurous spirit which took him back to Portugal to
oust his brother Miguel who had usurped the throne from young Queen Maria.

Pedro II

     Unlike his father, Pedro II grew up to be a stern, temperate, scholarly
monarch. He reigned like a judge -- with none of his father's temperamental
outbursts. During his rule of half a century, Brazil reached political and
cultural maturity, and the unity of the vast country was firmly secured. The
Duke of Caxias, soldier and statesman, became a symbol of that unity.
Political and social institutions developed peacefully and attained stability.
A competent administration was created; slavery was progressively eliminated
until its complete abolition in 1888; education was intensely promoted, and
health and welfare schemes were planned on a national scale. The influence
exercised by the Emperor on the people and institutions of the country did
much to ensure that the transition from Monarchy to Republic, when it
eventually came, took place without bloodshed.

Consolidation

     Although peace and stability were maintained within the country under the
Empire, Brazil was exposed to external threats along its southern frontier
during this period, which brought about the Paraguayan War. Solano Lopez, the
ruler of Paraguay, had built up a remarkable military machine that enabled his
country to wage a costly war against Brazil and its Argentine and Uruguayan
allies for nearly five years. When the Paraguayans were finally defeated,
Brazil, in line with a policy which has since become traditional, did not take
advantage of its victory to seek territorial aggrandizement. No occupied
territory was annexed, and under the peace treaty of 1872 Brazil both
guaranteed the territorial integrity of its vanquished neighbour and renounced
all her claims to indemnities and payments of war debts.

Causes

     The Emperor Pedro II was deposed in 1889, an event which prompted the
president of one of the Spanish American republics to observe that it was the
end of the only real republic of the Continent. The abolition of slavery in
May 1888 was one of the immediate causes of the fall of the monarchy. The
Republic was proclaimed on November 15 of the following year by Marshall
Deodoro da Fonseca, but the new order followed the same broad patterns of the
Empire. Most of the leading figures of the country lent their support and
collaboration to the new regime; and among them was one of Brazil's most
outstanding statesmen, the Baron of Rio Branco. It was his wisdom and skillful
diplomacy that enabled Brazil to end, by treaty or arbitration, nearly all its
outstanding frontier disputes.

Liberalism

     The Brazilian Republic developed along liberal lines, free from personal
dictatorships. President after president, elected under the rules of the
prevailing electoral system, succeeded each other in office until 1930. With
the Republic, the federative system was adopted in 1889; and it has kept its
same characteristics until today. In line with her democratic principles,
Brazil joined the Allies in both World Wars. In World War II a Brazilian
expeditionary force fought in Italy.

The "Second Republic"

     The so-called "First Republic" lasted until 1930 when for the first time
the Government was overthrown by force. The main aim of the victorious
revolutionary movement headed by Getulio Vargas was the reform of an electoral
and political system which, in the absence of strong national parties, had led
to the practice of electing presidents supported by the governors of the
leading States who, in turn, secured the election of Congressional
representatives pledged to carry out the policies of the central government.
Getulio Vargas, who was to govern Brazil for the next 15 years, came to power
to a troubled time. The country was feeling the effects of the world
depression which drastically reduced the price of coffee. The domestic
political scene was affected not only by the resultant financial crisis but
also, as the decade advanced, by clashes between militant minorities inspired
by ideas reaching the country from Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy on the one
hand, and by the Communist ideology, imported from the Soviet Union on the
other.

Authority and Change

     In 1934, after the Vargas regime had been consolidated, a new
constitution was introduced which greatly widened the franchise and gave the
vote to women. In late 1937, shortly before the presidential elections were
due, the heated political atmosphere and the disruptive activities of the
green-shirted Fascists, led President Vargas to declare a state of emergency,
which he followed up by dissolving Congress and assuming extraordinary powers
to govern by decree under an authoritarian charter. The times seemed to be
calling for strong rule. A foreign historian summarized this particular period
as follows: "freedom suffered, but the strong regime did have a record of
benefits". These benefits included the introduction of advanced social welfare
legislation, a reform of the educational system, and very substantial progress
in industrialization, including the construction of Brazil's first big steel
mill (1942-1946).

Modern Brazil

     As the war in Europe drew to its close, Vargas was forced to resign and
elections were held to appoint a successor. Going to the polls for the
time in 15 years, the electorate gave the majority of their votes to General
Eurico G. Dutra who had been Vargas's Minister of the Army during the war. A
new democratic constitution was approved by a constituent assembly in 1946,
which remained in force until 1967. But Vargas, although he had had to resign
in 1945, came to reap some of the rewards of his progressive measures in the
field of social welfare and trade union legislation when he was
constitutionally elected President at the end of Dutra's term in 1951. After
President Vargas's death in 1954, Brazil experienced five years of steady
economic expansion under President Juscelino Kubitschek (1955-61), the founder
of Brasilia. He was followed by President Janio Quadros, who resigned after
less than a year in office. The Vice-President, Joao Goulart, who was the
leader of the Labour Party, was sworn in (in Brazil, then, candidates for the
Presidency and Vice-Presidency, did not necessarily run under the same
ticket). After three troubled years that led the country to the verge of
political and financial chaos, exposing it to the danger of an extremist
take-over, President Goulart was forced to make way for a new president.

The 1964 Revolution

     The period 1964 to 1985 was of strict military rule, with some relaxation
of control after 1979. This period saw five presidents, all of them military
generals. The first, Humberto Castello Branco, came to power on a wave of
anti-communism and to try to stabilize the country's political and economic
situation. During the next fifteen years, the country was ruled through
Institutional Acts which were, in effect, presidential decree orders. Many
individual and collective rights were suspended during this period. New
austerity measures affected economic and political life. In the economic area,
the new regime imposed wage policies which gave the government control over
all pay raises. Collective bargaining was eliminated; strikes were virtually
outlawed; and the working class movement was systematically dismantled. The
government banned all existing political parties. By 1968, in the term
presided by Arthur da Costa e Silva, the economic strategies appeared to be
working. Inflation was contained and foreign firms began to make new
investments, assured of the regime's stability. Politically, however, there
were still strong voices of opposition. In response to the continued unrest,
the government became increasingly repressive. Because of illness, President
Costa e Silva resigned in 1969 and was succeeded by Emilio Garrastazu Medici.
By mid-1970s public morale had reached a new low and then-president, Ernesto
Geisel, proposed a period of "decompression" -- gradual steps which would lead
to restoration of democratic rule. 1979 marked the end of Institutional Act 5
and the inauguration of Joao Baptista Figueiredo. This was also the beginning
of"abertura" (opening), the process of restoring some political rights which
had been revoked. Many of the country's exiles were allowed to return. The
year also marked an acceleration of the public's demand for redemocratization.
Figueiredo maintained a steady hand on the opening process and in 1982 the
country held direct elections for state governors, the first such elections
since 1965.

Re-Democratization

     In 1984, there were nationwide demonstrations calling for the direct
election of a new president. In January 1985, Tancredo de Almeida Neves was
chosen president by an Electoral College. His election was significant
because he was not only the first civilian president to be elected in 21
years, but also because he was the candidate of an opposition coalition. On
March 14, the eve of his inauguration, Neves was rushed to a hospital,
overcome with a lingering illness he had stoically endured for several
months. The man who became acting president was Vice President Jose Sarney.
When Tancredo Neves died five weeks later, Brazilians were shocked, after
having watched his decline as the weeks passed. When his death was announced,
people throughout the country massed to express their genuine grief at the
loss. Jose Sarney was sworn in as permanent president, promising to maintain
the course set by Tancredo Neves. The first priority of President Sarney was
the calling of general elections in order to gather a National Constituent
Assembly to draft a new Constitution. Never in the history of Brazil one was
able to observe such a high degree of popular participation in the drafting of
a law. After 18 months of deliberations a new Constitution was promulgated
on October 5, 1988. Direct presidential elections were held for the first time
since 1960, in November 1989. Mr. Fernando Collor de Mello was elected
President.

Brazilia

     In 1957 Brasilia was no more than an architect's dream on a drawing
board, a city that was to be raised in the middle of a virtual wilderness.
In 1960, however, it was inaugurated as the newest capital in Latin
America, and by 1970 almost 550,000 Brazilians and foreigners crowded the
federal district and over 272,000 inhabitants lived in the as yet unfinished
city. Its master plan, drawn by the urban designer Lucio Costa, and its
major buildings, designed by the world-famous Brazilian architect Oscar
Niemeyer, had no need to accommodate within themselves remnants of the past or
to work around its errors. The city stood as a symbol for Brazilians of the
national will to overcome chronic economic and social problems by bringing
together the resources of the country's vast untapped interior and the large
coastal population living on the boundaries of poverty. As the city went
forward toward its completion in the 1970s, it remained one of the rare
opportunities in world history for an orderly total-city design in terms of
physical layout, architecture and human habitation.

Environment.

     Brasilia and its eight satellite towns are located in the federal
district of 2,245 square miles (5,814 square kilometers) carved out of Goias
state on the central plateau of Brazil at an altitute of about 3,500 feet
(1,100 meters). The climate is dry and mild with a dry season from March to
October and average minimum and maximum temperatures of about 57 F (14 C) and
81 F (27 C), respectively.

History:

     The idea of a capital city located in the interior had been proposed in
1789, was reiterated in 1822 when Brazil gained its independence from Portugal
and was embodied in the constitution if 1891. Eight years of surveying and
testing in the interior preceded the selection of Brasilia's present site in
1956 and the beginning of work under Pres. Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira.
In April 1960 the central Square of Three Powers was dedicated and the federal
government began its move from Rio de Janeiro. In 1962 the University of
Brasilia began academic activities, one of its main objectives being to
provide scientific and cultural assistance to the city and government. In
accordance with a governmental decree all foreign embassies were to begin
operation in Brasilia starting in September 1972.

Physical Layout:

     An artificial lake surrounds much of the city and separates it from the
suburban towns to the north. The cross-shaped plan of the central city is
emphasized by the North-South Axis. Brasilia's main transportation artery, and
the East-West, or Monumental Axis, lined by the federal and civic buildings.
At the west end of the monumental Axis are municipal buildings, while at the
east and around the Square of Three Powers stand the executive, judicial, and
legislative buildings. The National Congress Building comprises dome and
saucer forms atop a huge concrete plataform and central twin administration
towers. The cathedral is considered by many to be Niemeyer's finest
achievement.

Transportation and Utilities:

     Highways and air routes link Brasilia with the rest of Brazil, and there
is regular national and international air service. A network of roads connects
central Brasilia, and its suburbs and bus services are extensive -- both
required by the great distances within the district. The water supplies are
treated in two modern plants, and 60 percent of the garbage is transformed
into fertilizer. The city is entirely electrified, and telephone service is
widespread.

The People and Conditions of Life:

     Brasilia's approximately 500,000 inhabitants include both foreigners and
Brazilians, many of whom came from economically impoverished areas in the east
to take part in the city's building. Both low-cost and luxury housing were
built by the government in the central city area. In the suburbs private
building has been augmented by federal support for low-cost units.

Economic Life:

     The major roles of construction and of food and related services in
Brasilia's economy are natural in view of the city's growth and its status as
a governmental, rather than an industrial, centre. Industries connected with
construction and furnishing are booming, as are publishing and printing. Many
nationwide companies and associations are headquartered there, as are the
missions of foreign governments. The average per capita income is high,
accounting for the rapid development of local commerce and banking.

Local Government:

     The governor of the federal district, who is appointed by the Brazilian
president and confirmed by the Senate, is the chief administrative officer in
charge of numerous secretaries responsible for public works, welfare,
education, law enforcement, and the like. The Senate acts as the legislative
branch of local government. Monies and courts are under control of the federal
district. A regional administrator appointed by the governor provides
decentralized government for the satellite communities.

Education:

     The educational council of the federal district administers a diversified
school system from kindergarten through high school, with broad
extracurricular programs in physical training and the arts. Business and
technical skills are also taught at the higher levels. School placements and
enrollments were carefully planned in the early stages. The federally founded
University of Brasilia is divided into a number of separate institutes and
faculties with their own departments. The buildings, between North-South Axis
and the lake, were still under construction in the 1970s. It was hoped that
the university would play a leading role in the nation's development.

Health and Safety:

     Six municipal hospitals supplement a broad system of preventive medicine,
health care under a federal social security system, clinics, outlying health
centres, and private and religious hospitals. Fire and police services are
extensive and modern, the latter connected with both the territorial
government and the federal Ministry of Justice.

Cultural Life and Recreation:

     The university is central to much of Brasilia's cultural life. The
Cultural Foundation of the federal district sponsors many national meetings in
the arts and letters, and several foreign information centres are available.
The two auditoriums in the National Theatre (Teatro Nacional) have over 1,700
seats for dramatic, symphonic, and operatic works as well as modern staging
facilities. Historical institutions include the Museum of Brasilia (Museu de
Brasilia), with a historical record of Brasilia's creation, and the Institute
of History. The university library is open to the public, and other libraries
are being developed throughout the area.

     The only local newspaper, Correio Braziliense, supplements other dailies
from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Numerous publications and magazines
originate in the governmental departments. Four television and five radio
stations present local programs or material transmitted from the coastal
cities.

     An early lack of recreation facilities has been overcome in Brasilia by
numerous cinemas and night clubs and a proliferation of sporting grounds in
the city and suburbs. The city has more swimming pools than any other
Brazilian city. A zoological park and forest reserves are under development,
and boating and fishing is popular on the lake or the numerous nearby rivers.

Bibliography.

     FRONTINI, R.M. "The Achievement of Brasilia." in Optima. 1968 A quarterly
publication of the Anglo-American Corporation and of De Beers and Chartered
Consolidated Groups of Companies, is a full account with illustrations. See
also STAUBLI, Willy Brasilia 1966 A well illustrated general account of the
city; GAUTHEROT, Marcel Brasilia 1966 A brief description (in English, German
and French) and itinerary with excellent colour photographs; MALRAUX, Andre
Brasilia, la capitale de l'espoir 1959 A historical and literary account (in
French, Spanish and German) suggested by the author's visit, as French
minister of culture, to the city shortly before its dedication; and NIEMEYER,
Oscar Minha Experiencia in Brasilia (1961), a well-illustrated account by the
city's architect. ZOLKO, Gregorio and WIESENTHAL, Alfredo (eds.), Brasilia:
Historia, Urbanismo, Arquitetura, Construcao, 2nd ed (1960). Provides a
complete historical survey in Portuguese and English of the creation of
Brasilia as capital.
(C.B.D.)

Rio, The "Marvellous City"

     With inauguration of Brasilia, Rio ceased to be the nation's capital.
Even today, discussion is rife as to whether it was thereby improved or
otherwise. Every one is entitled to his own opinion and you will have yours,
after spending a few days with the "cariocas", that friendly and naturally
joyful people than can put up with every difficulty inherent in a day spent in
a major metropolis, yet still be capable of smiling and greeting a friend with
a cheerful "tudo bem" (everything is fine!).

     In any event, this second largest city in Brazil (after Sao Paulo) still
is the cultural capital of Brazil and to some extent its "emotional" capital
as well. Few persons or phenomena of nation-wide impact have not had Rio as
their starting point. And without creating a stir in Rio, it's not likely any
person or event will make its mark in the country as a whole.

     About five million -- mostly born in other states -- live, work and
frequent the beach in Rio de Janeiro. After the beach comes football. Here is
Copacabana, the world-famed bathing beach, and Ipanema, the silver strand
known all over the world, noted for the lovely girl of the popular tune, whose
charms even Frank Sinatra put on the air. Rio is also the home of Maracana,
world's largest football stadium. The finals of the all-Brazilian championship
are played there, with 150,000 spectators in attendance. And such figures are
by no means unusual at other times as well.

     Rio offers you all the facilities provided by other major world capitals.
Some of its restaurants are comparable with the best you can find anywhere.
Hotels meet first-rate standards, and cultural life is intense and varied. The
climate is mild and pleasant and the beaches open to everyone. In Rio de
Janeiro, in fact, some of the best things in life really are for free, or cost
almost nothing. Try, for instance, sitting at a bar at beachside, ordering an
icecold beer and letting life drift softly by! And you can do all this just
fifteen minutes away from the downtown business center!

     If economic data are meaningful to you, Rio may be described as a service
industry center, a key financial center and the possessor of a sound
industrial structure, comprising mainly transformation industries, the
building trade and production of foodstuffs, electrical equipment, chemicals
and pharmaceuticals, beverages and textiles.

     But it is in leisure pursuits and its natural setting that Rio de Janeiro
is outstanding. With its beaches, its splendid bay rated one of the loveliest
in the world, and its wonderful climate, a blend of summer and springtime, Rio
is a city that lives in and for the sun.

Sao Paulo: The City That Can't Slow Down

     This is the largest city in Brazil, also largest in South America and
second largest in Latin America (only Mexico City exceeds it). The greatest
industrial establishment in South America, and the major exporting, importing
and re-exporting market in Brazil. The "paulista" industries -- over twenty
thousand plants of all types and sizes -- concentrated in Sao Paulo and the
surrounding municipalities, provide jobs for over 600 thousand workers
representing more than a third of all labor employed in the national tertiary
sector. In the so-called ABC region -- the municipalities of Santo Andre, Sao
Bernardo and Sao Caetano -- is located the bulk of the Brazil automotive
industry. The industrial complex installed in Sao Paulo and the surroundings
represents the most complete combination of industries in the country, with
plants pulling out mass consumption goods and with a sound industrial
structure providing production goods.

     This is also the major financial center in Brazil, with nearly two
thousand banking agencies. The world's most important banks are represented
in Sao Paulo. It's there, as the "paulistas" say, that the money circulates.

     Up to the middle of the past century, Sao Paulo was pretty much of a
calm and peaceful place, a province retaining nostalgic memories of its
founding in 1554 by Jesuit priest Manoel de Nobrega. The central part of town
was still limited to the triangle lying between its three convents, Carmo, Sao
Bento and Sao Francisco.

     But with the end of the century came coffee, which swiftly turned into
an important economic factor, closely followed by the influx of immigrants.
At the turn of the century, industrialization got under way. By 1920, the
city had a population of 580 thousand; twenty years later it was 1,318
thousand. Today it stands at 15,500 thousand. This is the most cosmopolitan
and sophisticated city in Brazil. Foreign influence is more marked here than
anywhere else. Communities of foreign extraction are enormous, comprising
Italians, Japanese, Jews, Arabs, Chinese, Central Europeans -- from all
around the world come new "paulistas", people soon adapting to the headlong
pace of the city, and making their own contribution to it.

     These contributions are apparent in trade, in the restaurants, in
cultural activities -- in every aspect of life. The extraordinary absorptive
capacity of Brazil shows up in Sao Paulo in the most intensive of forms. Few
are the immigrants that after a few years in Sao Paulo do not themselves
identify with the "paulistas". Fewer still are the children of immigrants that
are not completely integrated into Sao Paulo and Brazilian culture.

     Despite the rate at which life rushes ahead in Sao Paulo, with everybody
hard at work creating something, doing some kind of business or earning some
more money, you will find the most sophisticated forms of leisure pursuits:
Italian restaurants that vie with the best in Italy itself, French fashion
shops comparable with the finest Paris has to offer, trade on an international
level and luxurious smoothly-run hotels.

     And the city just can't slow down. Sao Paulo, say the "paulistas" builds
one housing unit per minute. It's literally unstoppable!

The Amazon

     The Amazon Basin, locale of the world's largest tropical forest, has
since its discovery offered Europeans a tantalizing vision of ready wealth
and natural bounty. Until the mid-nineteenth century, however, the region
languished as an economic backwater. Colonial-era settlement was limited to
the lower reaches of the Amazon, where the Portuguese set up stations for
slaving expeditions against the Amerindians of the region, while the Jesuits
organized missions in the hinterland in an effort to protect the Indians from
the slavers. As the Indian population declined, an extractive economy
furnishing cacao, cinnamon, vanilla, cloves, and the like took the place of
slaving. Culturally, the basin was and is an Indian and Luso-Brazilian mix.
Amazonian Portuguese is marked by borrowings from Tupi-Guarani (the Amerindian
language used by the Jesuits as a lingua france). Local place-names, plants,
and animals are largely of Tupi derivation. Likewise, religious practices
include all the standards Iberian trappings combined with a variety of Indian
customs.

     The Amazon boomed with rising demand for rubber in the late nineteenth
century. Population grew more than six times and regional income some 12 times
between 1850 and 1910 (when the market collapsed). The "rubber barons" relied
on Indians and Nordestinos imported from the drought-stricken "sertao" to tap
the dispersed rubber trees; both groups suffered from a labor regime that was
little better than slavery. Those who survived formed the nucleus of the
Amazon's peasant population. In the wake of the rubber boom, the Amazonian
peasant earned a livelihood through mixed horticulture, hunting, fishing, and
trading.

     There was renewed interest in the Amazon's mineral wealth and
agricultural potential in the 1960s and 1970s. Changes in the legislation
governing mineral concessions and the readiness of state companies to form
joint ventures with foreign corporations increased exploration and mining.
There were a variety of colonization schemes, the notion being that the
unpeopled reaches of the Amazon forest were a safety valve to absorb the
land-hungry peasants of the Northeast. Amazonian peasants and small farmers
from the South responded to government incentives to colonize the region as
frequently as did the landless Nordestino.

     As a result of incentives to encourage farm management in the Amazon,
the region became increasingly threatened by environmental problems.

     As fires in the forest became an issue of world wide concern in the last
15 years, the Brazilian Government launched a program to control the
development of the region.

     The program OUR NATURE started in 1988 as a mechanism to identify the
current environmental problems in the Amazon within a specific time frame,
and proposes action oriented measures to bring lasting solutions to these
problems. Fiscal incentives and official credits were suspended to livestock
and agricultural projects in that area. Exportation of timber was also
prohibited.

     The program demonstrates the political will of the Brazilian government
towards the adoption of a policy that duly protects the environment in a vast
area of the country (60.4% of the Brazilian territory), while allowing for the
exploitation of its economic potentials.

     OUR NATURE is attuned with the concerns of ample segments of the
Brazilian society which were reflected in a chapter of the new Brazilian
Constitution promulgated in October 1988. This chapter can be so summarized:
it is the right of all Brazilians to have an ecologically sound environment
and it is the duty of the Government to provide for such a balanced
environment

     The recommendations of the program refer to environmental protection
(including preventions of fires), mining techniques, institutional and legal
framework to protect the environment, environmental education, research and
the protection of Indian communities and of the population dedicated to
extractive activities.


[See Table 4.: Official Holidays:]

[See Table 5.: Average Temperature and rainfall in some Brazilian Cities]