Ethnic divisions: Portuguese, Italian, German, Japanese, black, Amerindian; white 55%, mixed 38%, black 6%, other 1%
Principal religion: Roman Catholic 90%
Principal languages: Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French
Rank of affluence among U.N. members: 52/183
Brazil is the only Latin American nation whose primary language is Portuguese, a remnant of three centuries of Portuguese rule. Independent since 1822, Brazil is a nation of superlatives; it covers almost half of South America, and includes the world's biggest river system, the biggest tropical forest, and the second-biggest city (Sïo Paulo). Native American, African, and European cultures--along with a significant Japanese minority--have made Brazil a tropical melting pot, especially noted for its art, music, and literature. Recently, though, the world's attention has been focused on Brazil's unique rain forest, which may be home to as many as half the world's species. Government-subsidized logging and farming have been destroying huge swaths of that forest, with unforeseeable ecological consequences.
To most Brazilians, though, other issues are more pressing. After booms in the 1960s and 1970s turned Brazil into the world's tenth-largest economy, it struggled in the 1980s to stay on course. Reeling from a $93 billion foreign debt (largest in the Third World) and runaway inflation, the military government gave up power in 1985. New civilian rulers faced the task of restarting economic growth, addressing burgeoning environmental concerns, and narrowing the terrible abyss between rich and poor.
Thus far, they have floundered. President Fernando Collor de Mello was impeached in 1992 because of a bribery scandal; similar scandals in the legislature followed. Worse, the mistrusted politicians may have to draw up a new constitution--Brazil's eighth since it became independent in 1822. As a consequence, the economic future of this nation and its matchless natural endowment remains in jeopardy.
