Brezilya ( Brazil )

Brezilya
Brezilya (República Federativa do Brasil), Güney Amerika'da yer alan, kıtanın en büyük ve en kalabalık ülkesidir. Uzun bir Atlas Okyanusu kıyısı vardır. Komşuları, güneyden kuzeye: Uruguay, Arjantin, Paraguay, Bolivya, Peru, Kolombiya, Venezuella, Guyana, Surinam, Fransız Guyanası'dır. (Ekvador ve Şili hariç tüm Güney Amerika ülkeleriyle komşudur.)

Brezilya Bayrağında sarı, topraklarından bol miktarda çıkartılan altını, mavi denizi ve yeşil, ormanları temsil eder.

1500 yılında Portekizli denizci Pedro Alvares Cabral tarafından keşfedilen Brezilya, önce bir Portekiz kolonisi iken 1822 yılında bağımsızlık ilanından sonra Brezilya İmparatorluğu ve 1889 yılında başkanlık sistemiyle yönetilen Brezilya Federe Cumhuriyeti şekline dönüştü.

Resmî dili Portekizce olan Brezilya’da başkan, milletvekilleri, senatörler, valiler, belediye başkanları, eyalet ve şehir meclisleri üyeleri dört senede bir yapılan seçimlerle belirlenir. 110 milyon seçmenin katıldığı 2002 yılı seçimlerinde tüm bölgelerde elektronik seçim sandıkları kullanılmıştır.


Brazil (Portuguese: Brasil), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil) listen (help·info), is the largest and most populous country in South America.[6] It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world.[6][7] Its population comprises the majority of the world's Portuguese speakers. Brazil is the only Portuguese-speaking nation in the Americas. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of over 7,491 kilometers (4,655 mi).[6] It is bordered on the north by Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the overseas department of French Guiana; on the northwest by Colombia; on the west by Bolivia and Peru; on the southwest by Argentina and Paraguay and on the south by Uruguay. Numerous archipelagos in the Atlantic Ocean are part of the Brazilian territory, such as Fernando de Noronha, Rocas Atoll, Saint Peter and Paul Rocks, and Trindade and Martim Vaz.[6]

Brazil was a colony of Portugal from the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in 1500 until its independence in 1822.[8] Initially independent as the Empire of Brazil, the country has been a republic since 1889. The bicameral legislature (now called Congress) dates back to 1824, when the first constitution was ratified.[8] The Constitution defines Brazil as a Federal Republic[9] formed by the union of 26 States, the Federal District and the Municipalities (nowadays more than 5,564).[9][10]

Brazil is the world's tenth largest economy at market exchange rates and the ninth largest in purchasing power.[11] Economic reforms have given the country new international projection.[12] It is a founding member of the United Nations, the Union of South American Nations, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. It is a member of the G20. The Brazilian population is predominantly Roman Catholic, almost all Portuguese-speaking and multiethnic.[7] Brazil is also home to a diversity of wildlife, natural environments, and extensive natural resources in a variety of protected habitats.[6] Brazil is the first most biodiverse country.

Geography
Brazil occupies an immense area along the eastern coast of South America and includes much of the continent's interior region,[72] sharing land borders with Uruguay to the south; Argentina and Paraguay to the southwest; Bolivia and Peru to the west; Colombia to the northwest; Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana and the overseas department of French Guiana to the north (it borders every country on the continent except Ecuador and Chile), and stretches from the North to the Southern Hemisphere.[6] The factors of size, relief, climate, and natural resources make Brazil geographically diverse.[72] Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world—after Russia, Canada, the People's Republic of China and the United States—and third largest on the Americas; with a total area of 8,511,965 kilometers (5,289,090 mi), include 55,455 kilometers (34,458 mi) of water.[6] It spans three time zones; from UTC-4, in the North (except Pará) and UTC-4, in the central states;[73] to UTC-3, in the eastern states, the official time of Brazil, and UTC-2, in the Atlantic islands.[4]

Brazilian topography is also diverse, including hills, mountains, plains, highlands, and scrublands. Much of Brazil lies between 200 metres (660 ft) and 800 metres (2,600 ft) in elevation.[74] The main upland area occupies most of the southern half of the country.[74] The northwestern parts of the plateau consist of broad, rolling terrain broken by low, rounded hills.[74] The southeastern section is more rugged, with a complex mass of ridges and mountain ranges reaching elevations of up to 1,200 metres (3,900 ft).[74] These ranges include the Mantiqueira Mountains, the Espinhaço Mountains, and the Serra do Mar.[74] In north, the Guiana Highlands form a major drainage divide, separating rivers that flow south into the Amazon Basin from rivers that empty into the Orinoco river system, in Venezuela, to the north. The highest point in Brazil is the Pico da Neblina with 3,014 metres (9,890 ft), and the lowest point is the Atlantic Ocean with 0 metres (0 ft).[6] Brazil has a dense and complex system of rivers, one of the world's most extensive, with eight major drainage basins, all of which drain into the Atlantic Ocean.[75] Major rivers include the Amazon, the largest river in terms of volume of water, and the second-longest in the world; the Paraná and its major tributary, the Iguaçu River, where the Iguaçu Falls are located; the Negro, São Francisco, Xingu, Madeira and the Tapajós rivers.

The climate of Brazil comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a large geographic scale and varied topography, but the largest part of the country is tropical.[6] Analysed according to the Köppen system, Brazil hosts five major climatic subtypes: equatorial, tropical, semiarid, highland tropical, and temperate; ranging from equatorial rainforests in the north and semiarid deserts in the northeast, to temperate coniferous forests in the south and tropical savannas in central Brazil.[76] Many regions have starkly different microclimates.[77][78]

An equatorial climate characterizes much of northern Brazil. There is no real dry season but there are some variations in the period of the year when most rain falls.[76] Temperatures average 25 °C (77 °F),[78] with more significant temperature variations between night and day than between seasons.[77] Over central Brazil rainfall is more seasonal, characteristic of a savanna climate.[77] This region is as large and extensive as the Amazon basin but, lying farther south and being at a moderate altitude, it has a very different climate.[76] In the interior Northeast, seasonal rainfall is even more extreme. The semiarid climate region generally receives less than 800 millimetres (31 in) of rain,[79] most of which falls in a period of three to five months [80] and occasionally even more insufficiently, creating long periods of drought.[77] From the south of Bahia, near São Paulo, the distribution of rainfall changes, here some appreciable rainfall occurs in all months.[76] The South has temperate conditions, with average temperatures below 18 °C (64 °F) and cool winters,[78] frosts are quite common, with occasional snowfalls in the higher areas.[

Brazil's large territory comprises different ecosystems, such as the Amazon Rainforest, recognized as having the greatest biological diversity in the world;[81] the Atlantic Forest and the Cerrado, which together sustain some of the world's greatest biodiversity.[82] In the South, the Araucaria pine forest grows under temperate conditions.[82] The rich wildlife of Brazil reflects the variety of natural habitats; however, remains largely unknown, and new species are found on nearly a daily basis.[83] Scientists estimate that the total number of plant and animal species in Brazil could approach four million.[82] Larger mammals include pumas, jaguars, ocelots, rare bush dogs, and foxes. Peccaries, tapirs, anteaters, sloths, opossums, and armadillos are abundant. Deer are plentiful in the south, and monkeys of many species abound in the northern rain forests.[82][84]

Concern for the environment in Brazil has grown in response to global interest in environmental issues.[85] Its natural heritage is extremely threatened by cattle ranching and agriculture, logging, mining, resettlement, oil and gas extraction, over-fishing, expansion of urban centres, wildlife trade, fire, climate change, dams and infrastructure, water contamination, and invasive species.[81] In many areas of the country, the natural environment is threatened by development.[86] Construction of highways has opened up previously remote areas for agriculture and settlement; dams have flooded valleys and inundated wildlife habitats; and mines have scarred and polluted the landscape.[
According to the World Tourism Organization, Brazil had 5.026 million visitors in 2007,[118] is the main destination in South America. In 2005, Rio de Janeiro, Foz de Iguaçu, São Paulo, Florianópolis and Salvador were the most visited cities by international tourists for leisure trips.[119] In 2006 Rio de Janeiro and Fortaleza were the most popular destinations by national visitors.[120] Most international visitors in 2007 came from Argentina (18.3%), the United States (13.9%) and Portugal (5.6%).[121]

Brazil offers an ample gamut of options for both domestic and international tourists, with natural areas being its most popular tourism product, a combination of ecotourism with leisure and recreation, mainly sun and beach, and adventure travel, as well as historic and cultural tourism. Among the most popular destinations is the Pantanal, a tropical wetland in the Center-West Region; Amazon Rainforest in the North Region; cultural and historic tourism in the States of Minas Gerais and Bahia; beaches and dunes in the Northeast Region; beaches in the States of Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina, temperate mountains in the South Region; and business trips to São Paulo city.