‘Brazil’ likely derives from the Portuguese name for brazilwood, a tree that once grew abundantly along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with brasil commonly explained as meaning 'red like an ember', formed from brasa (ember) and the suffix -il (from -iculum or -ilium). Because brazilwood yields a deep red dye, it was highly valued by the European textile industry and became the first commercially exploited product from Brazil. The official Portuguese name for the land in early records was 'Land of the Holy Cross' (Terra da Santa Cruz), but sailors and traders commonly referred to it simply as 'Land of Brazil' (Terra do Brasil) because of the brazilwood trade. This popular name eventually eclipsed and replaced the official one. In the Guarani language (one of Paraguay’s official languages), Brazil is called Pindorama, the name used by Indigenous peoples for the region, meaning 'land of the palm trees' (Wikipedia).
Brazil is a federation composed of 26 states, one Federal District, and 5,570 municipalities. The Union, the states, the Federal District, and the municipalities constitute the spheres of government. The federation is founded on five fundamental principles: sovereignty, citizenship, human dignity, the social values of labor and free enterprise, and political pluralism. The classic tripartite branches of government — executive, legislative, and judicial, operating under a system of checks and balances — are formally established by the Constitution. The executive and legislative branches are independently organized in all three spheres of government, while the judiciary exists only at the federal level and within the states and the Federal District. All members of the executive and legislative branches are directly elected. For most of its democratic history, Brazil has had a multi-party system with proportional representation. Voting is compulsory for literate citizens between 18 and 70 years of age, and optional for illiterate citizens, for those aged 16–18, and for those over 70. The country has more than 40 active political parties, and fifteen are represented in Congress. It is common for politicians to switch parties, so the distribution of congressional seats among parties changes regularly.
BRAZILIAN STATES vary widely in both population and area, ranging from those with just over 0.5 M inhabitants (RR, with 652,713, IBGE) to those with more than 45 M (SP, 46,649,132, IBGE — the most populous subnational unit in the New World and the 27th worldwide, FANDON). In terms of area, they range from small states with less than 25 K km² (SE, 21,938.188 km²) to the vast state of Amazonas, with more than 1.5 M km² (1,559,255.881 km²), the 9th largest subnational unit in the world (Wikipedia).
Regarding MUNICIPALITIES, their areas range from Altamira (PA), with 159,533.30 km² (3rd largest in the world), to Santa Cruz de Minas (MG), with only 3.56 km² (Maringá Post). In terms of population, São Paulo (SP) is the most populous city in Brazil, with 11,451,245 inhabitants, while Serra da Saudade (MG) is the smallest municipality, with just 833 residents (CNN). Two regions in Brazil have ambiguous or atypical municipal jurisdictions: Brasília, as mentioned below; and the Brazilian Oceanic Islands — including Fernando de Noronha (a state district of Pernambuco — the only one of its kind in the country, not belonging to any municipality, whereas all other Brazilian districts are municipal or, in the case of the Federal District, federal, G1), the Rocas Atoll (not part of any municipality), and the islands of Trindade and Martim Vaz (which belong to the municipality of Vitória, Espírito Santo, Prefeitura de Vitória).
BRASILIA is the capital of Brazil and the country’s third-largest city, with 2,817,381 inhabitants (2022, IBGE). Administratively and territorially, Brasília and the Federal District are equivalent; when the entity is interpreted as a municipality — such as in rankings of the largest cities — it is referred to as Brasília. When considered from a state-level perspective, such as in noting that it is the smallest federative unit in the country, it is referred to as the Federal District (Almanaque Z). The city is located atop the Brazilian Highlands in the Central-West region, at an elevation of 1,172 m. It was founded by President Juscelino Kubitschek on 21 April 1960 to serve as the new national capital. Brasília is estimated to be Brazil’s third most populous city and, among major American Latina cities, it has the highest GDP per capita (Wikipedia).
Brazil has 26 state capitals, where the headquarters of state governments are located, along with the principal administrative bodies of each unit. With the exception of Florianópolis and Vitória, they are the largest cities in their respective states. Some capitals are mountainous, others coastal; some lie in the Amazon, on islands, in the Northern Hemisphere, on the Equator, or along the Tropic of Capricorn; some are in the temperate zone; some are small or part of megalopolises; and their historical origins include Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and French foundations. A few of their superlatives are shown on the map below.
