Welcome to Brazil! The fifth biggest country in the world, both, with regard to the area and the population. Brazil is almost as big as the entire Europa and covers close to half of South America. Brazil's population of 200 million is the biggest in South America. The country's name is derived from the Brazilwood tree, in Portuguese "glow-like".
Beside it's sheer size, Brazil impresses mostly by it's majestetic nature and the warm-hearted inhabitants who are full of joy of living and music. Tropical islands, rain forests, marvellous beaches along the Atlantic costline extending 8,000 km, the Amazon river with as much water as the world's seven next biggest rivers together, the waterfalls in Foz do Iguacu – pure nature.
The first traces of human life found in Brazil date back almost 12,000 years. The Colonial time started after the split of South America between Portugal and Spain, as the Portuguese sailor Pedro Alvares Cabral landed Brazil in 1500. From 1530, Indians were enslaved. As many Indians died, African slaves werde deported to Brazil. Still today, the Brazilian state of Bahia hosts one of the most vivid African cultures outside Africa. Salvador da Bahia became the capital in 1549, Rio de Janeiro in 1763.