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The name Brazil is a shortened form of Terra do Brasil ("Land of Brazil"), a reference to the brazilwood tree. The name was given in the early 16th century to the territories leased to the merchant consortium led by Fernão de Loronha, to exploit brazilwood for the production of wood dyes for the European textile industry.
The country's name became the Republic of the United States of Brazil (which in 1967 was changed to Federative Republic of Brazil). Two military presidents ruled through four years of dictatorship amid conflicts among the military and political elites (two Naval revolts , followed by a Federalist revolt ), and an economic crisis due to the ...
The golden age of Brazil, 1695–1750; growing pains of a colonial society. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962. Freyre, Gilberto. The Masters and the Slaves: A Study of the Development of Brazilian Civilization, translated by Samuel Putnam. revised edition 1963. Hemming, John. Red Gold: The Conquest of the Brazilian Indians. 1978.
Brazil, [b] officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, [c] is the largest and easternmost country in South America and Latin America. It is the world's fifth-largest country by area and one of the most populated countries. Its capital is Brasília, and its most populous city is São Paulo. Brazil is a federation composed of 26 states and a ...
British East Africa (former name): after its geographical position on the continent of Africa and the former colonial power, . See also Britain, above, and Africa on the Place name etymology page. From the Kikuyu word Kirinyaga a contraction of Kirima nyaga "Ostrich mountain", so called because the dark shadows and snow-capped peak resemble the ...
Brazil conducts its first official census, the population is 9,930,478. [116] 1873–1874: Revolt of the Muckers in Rio Grande do Sul. [117] 1876: 28 April: Francisco, a slave, becomes the last person to be executed in Brazil, after murdering his masters, being hanged in Pilar, Alagoas. 1877–1878: Grande Seca (Great Drought) in Northeastern ...
The United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves was a pluricontinental monarchy formed by the elevation of the Portuguese colony named State of Brazil to the status of a kingdom and by the simultaneous union of that Kingdom of Brazil with the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of the Algarves, constituting a single state consisting of three kingdoms.
The land now known as Brazil was claimed by the Portuguese for the first time on 23 April 1500 when the Navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral landed on its coast. Permanent settlement by the Portuguese followed in 1534, and for the next 300 years they slowly expanded into the territory to the west until they had established nearly all of the frontiers which constitute modern Brazil's borders.