Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth-largest in the world. It covers half the land mass of the continent and touches every country in South America except Ecuador and Chile. It can be divided into five regions – South, Southeast, Central-West, North and Northeast. Each region comprises several states and has a distinct landscape, almost as if it were a separate country.

Brazilian government is based on the American model and since 1985 it has been ruled by a civilian president. For the previous 20 years it had been ruled by military leaders.

Brazil is a fascinating mix of three distinctive cultures, European, African and Indian. Founded and colonized by the Portuguese in the early 1500s, the earliest settlers mixed with the indigenous Indians, who are believed to have numbered one million souls. Gradually, much of the Indian culture was lost (except in the midst of the vast Amazon Basin) as it was absorbed into that of the Portuguese. Then, in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, large numbers of slaves were brought to Brazil to work on the sugar plantations. They brought with them the culture, religious practices and mores of Northwest Africa. Rather than being absorbed by the Portuguese, their culture blended with it and so the culture of Brazil is a hybrid one. The slaves also gave the country its distinctive hue and beat. Modern immigration, starting in the mid-19th century, has brought Italians, Germans and Japanese in large numbers, and many Jews fled to Brazil from Europe as Hitler came to power.

Officially, Brazil is a Catholic country with the largest Catholic community in the world. While Catholics continue to practice their traditional faith, millions of them also take part in ceremonies and rites of another faith. Macumba is the general term that Cariocas use to describe two types of African spirit worship: Candomblé (practiced in the state of Bahia) and Umbanda (a newer form that originated in Rio).

Portuguese is the national language since it was Portugal that colonized the country in 1532 and ruled it till independence was declared in 1822. Surprisingly, English rather than Spanish, is Brazil’s second language, even though all of Brazil’s neighbors are Spanish-speaking. Only in southern Brazil is Spanish the second language. English is taught in secondary schools and most educated Brazilians speak it. At the better hotels, restaurants and shops, the staff will include some English speakers, and it is not too difficult to navigate Rio and Brazil’s other urban centers using only English.

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