INTRODUCTION TO BRAZIL

Geography:
Brazil, largest country in South America. The total area is 8,547,404 sq km (3,300,171 sq mi). The capital is Brasília.

Land and Resources
The main physical features of Brazil are the Brazilian Highlands, a vast highland region in the southeast; the Amazon River Basin of impenetrable forested lowlands, swamps, and floodplains; and the Guiana Highlands in the extreme northwest. Much of the coast is fringed by a narrow plain. The Amazon River is navigable by oceangoing ships for 3700 km (2300 mi).

The plant life of Brazil is highly diversified, particularly in the Amazon Basin. Brazilian forests provide immense timber reserves and are a potential source for pharmaceutical products. Vegetation is less dense in the highlands, giving way to cacti and other spiny plants in dry sections of the plateau region; coniferous trees thrive in temperate areas.

Climate:
Brazil's climate ranges from wet and tropical at the mouth of the Amazon to much drier and cooler in the southeast. Winter temperatures as low as -6^° C (22^° F) are occasionally recorded in the extreme south.

Population
The population of Brazil is 167,660,687 (1997 estimate), 79 percent of which lives in urban areas. People of European descent, primarily Portuguese, account for 54 percent of the population; mulattoes and mestizos, with African-European and European-Native American ancestry, total 39 percent. People of African-Native American descent, Asian descent, and pure Native American descent form much smaller parts of the population.