Climate.—Brazil lies almost wholly within the tropics, and is still in great part unexplored and unsettled. The climate of Brazil varies greatly—the lowlands of the Amazon and a great part of the coast being hot, humid, and unhealthy, while the tablelands and some districts of the coast swept by the trade winds are temperate and healthy.
Production and Industry.—The minerals are very considerable and valuable, comprising gold, silver, iron, diamonds, topazes, and other precious stones. Its forests are immense, abounding in the greatest variety of useful and beautiful woods adapted for dyeing, cabinet work, or ship-building; among these are mahogany, logwood, rosewood, brazil-wood, etc.
Its agricultural produce is abundant; maize, beans, cassava root, and nuts are very generally cultivated; also, in some parts, wheat and other European cereals.
Cattle raising is an important industry, the number being computed at eighteen million. Cotton is being largely cultivated for export, and is being used for home manufactures. Sugar cane is grown in large and increasing quantities in the northern provinces, Pernambuco being the center of the sugar-producing zone.
India rubber comes from the more northern provinces, especially the valley of the Amazon, and is shipped from Pará and Manáos; and coffee, though also grown in the north, comes chiefly from Rio de Janeiro, Minas, São Paulo, and Esperito Santo. Tobacco and cocoa are grown largely, especially in Bahia. The exports consist solely of the raw produce of the soil.
People.—The inhabitants of Brazil, as of other parts of South America, present three great elements—that of the aboriginal Indians, that of the European conquerors and colonists and their descendants, and that of the Africans introduced as slaves. The most important section of the Brazilians are the descendants of the Portuguese settlers. There are, however, several flourishing German and Italian colonies in the southern states.
The number of pure white people is very small in proportion to those who have some mixture of Indian or African blood, and the Brazilians themselves have developed into a number of more or less distinct physical types in the widely separated provinces of the republic. Formerly about one-half of the entire population of Brazil was formed of negro slaves.
The Roman Catholic is the established religion, and is supported by the state; but all other sects are tolerated. There are, however, very few Brazilians who are not Roman Catholics.
Education is still in a very backward condition. The language is Portuguese, with dialectal varieties.
Government.—According to the new Constitution of 1890, the empire was abolished and the Brazilian nation is constituted a Federal Republic under the title of the United States of Brazil, each of the twenty provinces forming a separate state with local self-government. At the head of the federation is a president with executive authority, elected by the people for six years. The National Congress with legislative functions comprises a Senate and Chamber of Deputies, the senators being chosen three for each state, for nine years, the deputies for three years in the proportion of one to every seventy thousand of the population. The franchise extends to all citizens not under twenty-one years of age.