1.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama
2.
Federal Senate
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The Federal Senate is the upper house of the National Congress of Brazil. Created by the first Constitution of the Brazilian Empire in 1824, since the Proclamation of the Republic in 1889 the Federal Senate has resembled the United States Senate. Currently, the Senate comprises 81 seats, three Senators from each of the 26 states and three Senators from the Federal District are elected on a majority basis to serve eight-year terms. Elections are staggered so that two-thirds of the house is up for election at one time. The candidate in each State and the Federal District who achieve the greatest plurality of votes are elected, the current president of the Brazilian Senate is Eunício Oliveira, from the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party of Ceará. He was elected in early 2017 for a two-year term, the Federal Senate of Brazil was established as the Senate of the Empire by the Constitution of 1824, first enacted after the Declaration of Independence. Following independence, in 1822, Emperor Pedro I ordered the convocation of a National Assembly to draft the countrys first Constitution, following several disagreements with the elected deputies, the Emperor dissolved the Assembly. In 1824, Pedro I implemented the first Constitution which established a Legislative branch with the Chamber of Deputies as the house. The first configuration of the Senate was a body to the Emperor. Membership was for life and it was a place of great prestige, members of the Senate were elected, but they had to be at least 40 years old and have an annual income of 800,000 contos-de-réis, which limited candidates to wealthy citizens. Voters also faced an income qualification, voting in an election for the Senate was limited to male citizens with an annual income of at least 200,000 contos-de-réis. Those who qualified for this did not vote directly for Senators, instead, to be a Senate elector required an annual income of 400,000 contos-de-réis. Once elected, these electors would vote for senator. The election itself would not result in a winner automatically, the three candidates receiving the most votes would make up what was called a triple list, from which the Emperor would select one individual that would be considered elected. The Emperor usually chose the candidate with the most votes, the unelected Princes of the Brazilian Imperial House were senators by right and would assume their seats in the Senate upon reaching age 25. The original Senate had 50 members, representing all of the Empires Provinces, following the adoption of the 1824 Constitution the first session of the Senate took place in May 1826. The Emperor had repeatedly delayed calling the first election, which had led to accusations that he would attempt to establish an absolutist government
3.
French Guiana
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French Guiana, officially called Guiana, is an overseas department and region of France, located on the north Atlantic coast of South America in the Guyanas. It borders Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. Its 83,534 km2 area has a low population density of only 3 inhabitants per km2, with half of its 244,118 inhabitants in 2013 living in the metropolitan area of Cayenne. By land area, it is the second largest region of France, both the region and the department have been ruled since December 2015 by a single assembly within the framework of a new territorial collectivity, the French Guiana Territorial Collectivity. This assembly, the French Guiana Assembly, has replaced the regional council and departmental council. The French Guiana Assembly is in charge of regional and departmental government, the area was originally inhabited by Native Americans. The first French establishment is recorded in 1503 but the French presence didnt really become durable until 1643, Guiana then became a slave colony and saw its population increase until the official abolition of slavery at the time of the French revolution. During World War II, the Guianan Félix Éboué was one of the first to stand behind General de Gaulle as early as June 18,1940, Guiana officially rallied Free France in 1943. It definitively abandoned its status as a colony and became again a French department in 1946, de Gaulle, who became president, decided to establish the Guiana Space Center in 1965. It is now operated by the CNES, Arianespace and the European Space Agency, several thousand Hmong refugees from Laos migrated to French Guiana in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Nowadays fully integrated in the French central state, Guiana is a part of the European Union, the region is the most prosperous territory in South America with the highest GDP per capita. A large part of Guianas economy derives from the presence of the Guiana Space Centre, as elsewhere in France, the official language is French, but each ethnic community has its own language, of which Guianan Creole is the most widely spoken. Guiana is derived from an Amerindian language and means land of many waters, French Guiana and the two larger countries to the north and west, Guyana and Suriname, are still often collectively referred to as the Guianas and constitute one large shield landmass. French Guiana was originally inhabited by people, Kalina, Arawak, Emerillon, Galibi, Palikur, Wayampi. The French attempted to create a colony there in the 18th century in conjunction with its settlement of some other Caribbean islands, in this penal colony, the convicts were sometimes used as butterfly catchers. During its existence, France transported approximately 56,000 prisoners to Devils Island, fewer than 10% survived their sentence. In addition, in the nineteenth century, France began requiring forced residencies by prisoners who survived their hard labor. A Portuguese-British naval squadron took French Guiana for the Portuguese Empire in 1809 and it was returned to France with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1814
4.
Atlantic Ocean
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The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the worlds oceans with a total area of about 106,460,000 square kilometres. It covers approximately 20 percent of the Earths surface and about 29 percent of its surface area. It separates the Old World from the New World, the Atlantic Ocean occupies an elongated, S-shaped basin extending longitudinally between Eurasia and Africa to the east, and the Americas to the west. The Equatorial Counter Current subdivides it into the North Atlantic Ocean, in contrast, the term Atlantic originally referred specifically to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco and the sea off the Strait of Gibraltar and the North African coast. The Greek word thalassa has been reused by scientists for the huge Panthalassa ocean that surrounded the supercontinent Pangaea hundreds of years ago. The term Aethiopian Ocean, derived from Ancient Ethiopia, was applied to the Southern Atlantic as late as the mid-19th century, many Irish or British people refer to the United States and Canada as across the pond, and vice versa. The Black Atlantic refers to the role of ocean in shaping black peoples history. Irish migration to the US is meant when the term The Green Atlantic is used, the term Red Atlantic has been used in reference to the Marxian concept of an Atlantic working class, as well as to the Atlantic experience of indigenous Americans. Correspondingly, the extent and number of oceans and seas varies, the Atlantic Ocean is bounded on the west by North and South America. It connects to the Arctic Ocean through the Denmark Strait, Greenland Sea, Norwegian Sea, to the east, the boundaries of the ocean proper are Europe, the Strait of Gibraltar and Africa. In the southeast, the Atlantic merges into the Indian Ocean, the 20° East meridian, running south from Cape Agulhas to Antarctica defines its border. In the 1953 definition it extends south to Antarctica, while in later maps it is bounded at the 60° parallel by the Southern Ocean, the Atlantic has irregular coasts indented by numerous bays, gulfs, and seas. Including these marginal seas the coast line of the Atlantic measures 111,866 km compared to 135,663 km for the Pacific. Including its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers an area of 106,460,000 km2 or 23. 5% of the ocean and has a volume of 310,410,900 km3 or 23. 3%. Excluding its marginal seas, the Atlantic covers 81,760,000 km2 and has a volume of 305,811,900 km3, the North Atlantic covers 41,490,000 km2 and the South Atlantic 40,270,000 km2. The average depth is 3,646 m and the maximum depth, the bathymetry of the Atlantic is dominated by a submarine mountain range called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. It runs from 87°N or 300 km south of the North Pole to the subantarctic Bouvet Island at 42°S, the MAR divides the Atlantic longitudinally into two halves, in each of which a series of basins are delimited by secondary, transverse ridges. The MAR reaches above 2000 m along most of its length, the MAR is a barrier for bottom water, but at these two transform faults deep water currents can pass from one side to the other
5.
Suriname
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Suriname, officially known as the Republic of Suriname, is a sovereign state on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, at just under 165,000 square kilometers, it is the smallest country in South America. Suriname has a population of approximately 566,000, most of live on the countrys north coast, in and around the capital and largest city. Long inhabited by cultures of indigenous tribes, Suriname was explored and contested by European powers before coming under Dutch rule in the late 17th century. In 1954, the country one of the constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Its indigenous peoples have been active in claiming land rights and working to preserve their traditional lands. Suriname is considered to be a culturally Caribbean country, and is a member of the Caribbean Community, while Dutch is the official language of government, business, media, and education, Sranan, an English-based creole language, is a widely used lingua franca. Suriname is the territory outside Europe where Dutch is spoken by a majority of the population. The people of Suriname are among the most diverse in the world, spanning a multitude of ethnic, religious, and linguistic groups. This area was occupied by cultures of indigenous peoples long before European contact, remnants of which can be found in petroglyph sites at Werehpai. The name Suriname may derive from a Taino indigenous people called Surinen, British settlers, who founded the first European colony at Marshalls Creek along the Suriname River, spelled the name as Surinam. When the territory was taken over by the Dutch, it part of a group of colonies known as Dutch Guiana. The official spelling of the countrys English name was changed from Surinam to Suriname in January 1978, a notable example is Surinames national airline, Surinam Airways. The older English name is reflected in the English pronunciation, /ˈsʊrᵻnæm/ or /ˈsʊrᵻnɑːm/, in Dutch, the official language of Suriname, the pronunciation is, with the main stress on the third syllable and a schwa terminal vowel. Indigenous settlement of Suriname dates back to 3,000 BC, the largest tribes were the Arawak, a nomadic coastal tribe that lived from hunting and fishing. They were the first inhabitants in the area, the Carib also settled in the area and conquered the Arawak by using their superior sailing ships. They settled in Galibi at the mouth of the Marowijne River, while the larger Arawak and Carib tribes lived along the coast and savanna, smaller groups of indigenous peoples lived in the inland rainforest, such as the Akurio, Trió, Warrau, and Wayana. Beginning in the 16th century, French, Spanish, and English explorers visited the area, a century later, Dutch and English settlers established plantation colonies along the many rivers in the fertile Guiana plains
6.
Portuguese Empire
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The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas, was one of the largest and longest-lived empires in world history and the first colonial empire. It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002, the first era of the Portuguese empire originated at the beginning of the Age of Discovery. Initiated by the Kingdom of Portugal, it would eventually expand across the globe, in 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the secret design. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts, by 1571, a string of naval outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India and South Asia. This commercial network and the trade had a substantial positive impact on Portuguese economic growth. Though the realms continued to be administered separately, the Council of Portugal ruled the country and its empire from Madrid. As the King of Spain was also King of Portugal, Portuguese colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to Spain, the Dutch Republic, England, and France. With its smaller population, Portugal was unable to defend its overstretched network of trading posts. Eventually, Brazil became the most valuable colony of the era until, as part of the wave of independence movements that swept the Americas during the early 19th century. The third era represents the stage of Portuguese colonialism after the decolonization of the Americas of the 1820s. The colonial possessions had been reduced to the African coastline, Portuguese Timor, the disastrous 1890 British Ultimatum led to the contraction of Portuguese ambitions in Africa. Macau was returned to China in 1999, the origin of the Kingdom of Portugal lay in the reconquista, the gradual reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. There were several motives for their first attack, on the Marinid Sultanate. In 1415 an attack was made on Ceuta, a strategically located North African Muslim enclave along the Mediterranean Sea, although Ceuta proved to be a disappointment for the Portuguese, the decision was taken to hold it while exploring along the Atlantic African coast. At the time, Europeans did not know what lay beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast, under his sponsorship, soon the Atlantic islands of Madeira and Azores were reached and started to be settled producing wheat to export to Portugal. Fears of what lay beyond Cape Bojador, and whether it was possible to return once it was passed, were assuaged in 1434 when it was rounded by one of Infante Henrys captains, Gil Eanes. Once this psychological barrier had been crossed, it became easier to further along the coast
7.
Amazon rainforest
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The Amazon rainforest, also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin encompasses 7,000,000 square kilometres, of which 5,500,000 square kilometres are covered by the rainforest and this region includes territory belonging to nine nations. States or departments in four nations contain Amazonas in their names, the name Amazon is said to arise from a war Francisco de Orellana fought with the Tapuyas and other tribes. The women of the tribe alongside the men, as was their custom. Orellana derived the name Amazonas from the Amazons of Greek mythology, the rainforest likely formed during the Eocene era. It appeared following a reduction of tropical temperatures when the Atlantic Ocean had widened sufficiently to provide a warm. Following the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the extinction of the dinosaurs, from 66–34 Mya, the rainforest extended as far south as 45°. Climate fluctuations during the last 34 million years have allowed savanna regions to expand into the tropics, during the Oligocene, for example, the rainforest spanned a relatively narrow band. It expanded again during the Middle Miocene, then retracted to a mostly inland formation at the last glacial maximum, however, the rainforest still managed to thrive during these glacial periods, allowing for the survival and evolution of a broad diversity of species. During the mid-Eocene, it is believed that the basin of the Amazon was split along the middle of the continent by the Purus Arch. Water on the eastern side flowed toward the Atlantic, while to the west water flowed toward the Pacific across the Amazonas Basin, as the Andes Mountains rose, however, a large basin was created that enclosed a lake, now known as the Solimões Basin. Within the last 5–10 million years, this accumulating water broke through the Purus Arch, there is evidence that there have been significant changes in Amazon rainforest vegetation over the last 21,000 years through the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation. There is debate, however, over how extensive this reduction was, more than 56% of the dust fertilizing the Amazon rainforest comes from the Bodélé depression in Northern Chad in the Sahara desert. The dust contains phosphorus, important for plant growth, the yearly Sahara dust replaces the equivalent amount of phosphorus washed away yearly in Amazon soil from rains and floods. Up to 50 million tonnes of Sahara dust per year are blown across the Atlantic Ocean, CALIPSO uses a laser range finder to scan the Earths atmosphere for the vertical distribution of dust and other aerosols. CALIPSO regularly tracks the Sahara-Amazon dust plume, CALIPSO has measured variations in the dust amounts transported— an 86 percent drop between the highest amount of dust transported in 2007 and the lowest in 2011. A possibility causing the variation is the Sahel, a strip of land on the southern border of the Sahara. When rain amounts in the Sahel are higher, the volume of dust is lower, the higher rainfall could make more vegetation grow in the Sahel, leaving less sand exposed to winds to blow away
8.
Wood
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Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees, and other woody plants. It is a material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers which are strong in tension embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression. Wood is sometimes defined as only the secondary xylem in the stems of trees, in a living tree it performs a support function, enabling woody plants to grow large or to stand up by themselves. It also conveys water and nutrients between the leaves, other growing tissues, and the roots, Wood may also refer to other plant materials with comparable properties, and to material engineered from wood, or wood chips or fiber. In 2005, the stock of forests worldwide was about 434 billion cubic meters. As an abundant, carbon-neutral renewable resource, woody materials have been of intense interest as a source of renewable energy, in 1991 approximately 3.5 billion cubic meters of wood were harvested. Dominant uses were for furniture and building construction, a 2011 discovery in the Canadian province of New Brunswick discovered the earliest known plants to have grown wood, approximately 395 to 400 million years ago. Wood can be dated by carbon dating and in species by dendrochronology to make inferences about when a wooden object was created. People have used wood for millennia for many purposes, primarily as a fuel or as a material for making houses, tools, weapons, furniture, packaging, artworks. Constructions using wood date back ten thousand years, buildings like the European Neolithic long house were made primarily of wood. Recent use of wood has changed by the addition of steel. The year-to-year variation in tree-ring widths and isotopic abundances gives clues to the climate at that time. This process is known as growth, it is the result of cell division in the vascular cambium, a lateral meristem. These cells then go on to form thickened secondary cell walls, composed mainly of cellulose, hemicellulose, if the distinctiveness between seasons is annual, these growth rings are referred to as annual rings. Where there is little seasonal difference growth rings are likely to be indistinct or absent, if the bark of the tree has been removed in a particular area, the rings will likely be deformed as the plant overgrows the scar. It is usually lighter in color than that near the portion of the ring. The outer portion formed later in the season is known as the latewood or summerwood. However, there are differences, depending on the kind of wood
9.
Resin
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In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. They are often mixtures of compounds, principally terpenes. Many plants, particularly woody plants, produce resin in response to injury, the resin acts as a bandage protecting the plant from invading insects and pathogens. Plants secrete resins and rosins for their protective benefits, the resin produced by most plants is composed mainly of terpenes and derivatives. Some resins also contain a proportion of resin acids. The individual components of resin can be separated by fractional distillation, rosins on the other hand are less volatile and consist, inter alia, of diterpenes. Amber is fossil resin from coniferous and other tree species, copal, kauri gum, dammar and other resins may also be found as subfossil deposits. Subfossil copal can be distinguished from genuine fossil amber because it becomes tacky when a drop of a solvent such as acetone or chloroform is placed on it, african copal and the kauri gum of New Zealand are also procured in a semi-fossil condition. Solidified resin from which the volatile terpene components have been removed by distillation is known as rosin, typical rosin is a transparent or translucent mass, with a vitreous fracture and a faintly yellow or brown colour, non-odorous or having only a slight turpentine odor and taste. Rosin is insoluble in water, mostly soluble in alcohol, essential oils, ether and hot fatty oils, and softens and melts under the influence of heat, rosin consists of a complex mixture of different substances including organic acids named the resin acids. These are closely related to the terpenes, and derive from them through partial oxidation, Resin acids can be dissolved in alkalis to form resin soaps, from which the purified resin acids are regenerated by treatment with acids. Examples of resin acids are abietic acid, C20H30O2, plicatic acid contained in cedar, and pimaric acid, C20H30O2, a constituent of galipot resin. Abietic acid can also be extracted from rosin by means of hot alcohol, it crystallizes in leaflets, pimaric acid closely resembles abietic acid into which it passes when distilled in a vacuum, it has been supposed to consist of three isomers. Rosin is obtained from pines and some plants, mostly conifers. Propolis, consisting largely of resins collected from such as poplars and conifers, is used by honey bees to seal gaps in their hives. Shellac and lacquer are examples of insect-derived resins, asphaltite and Utah resin are petroleum bitumens, not a product secreted by plants, although it was ultimately derived from plants. These were highly prized substances, and required as incense in religious rites. The word resin has been applied in the world to nearly any component of a liquid that will set into a hard lacquer or enamel-like finish
10.
Salted fish
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Salted fish, such as kippered herring or dried and salted cod, is fish cured with dry salt and thus preserved for later eating. Drying or salting, either dry salt or with brine, was the only widely available method of preserving fish until the 19th century. Dried fish and salted fish are a staple of diets in the Caribbean, North Africa, Southeast Asia, Southern China, Scandinavia, coastal Russia, like other salt-cured meats, it provides preserved animal protein even in the absence of electrically powered refrigeration. Salting is the preservation of food with dry edible salt and it is related to pickling, and is one of the oldest methods of preserving food. Salt inhibits the growth of microorganisms by drawing out of microbial cells through osmosis. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of unwanted bacteria, smoking, often used in the process of curing meat, adds chemicals to the surface of meat that reduce the concentration of salt required. Salting is used because most bacteria, fungi and other pathogenic organisms cannot survive in a highly salty environment. Any living cell in such an environment will become dehydrated through osmosis, the water activity, aw, in a fish is defined as the ratio of the water vapour pressure in the flesh of the fish to the vapour pressure of pure water at the same temperature and pressure. It ranges between 0 and 1, and is a parameter that measures how available the water is in the flesh of the fish, available water is necessary for the microbial and enzymatic reactions involved in spoilage. There are a number of techniques that have been or are used to tie up the water or remove it by reducing the aw. Traditionally, techniques such as drying, salting and smoking have been used, in more recent times, freeze-drying, water binding humectants, and fully automated equipment with temperature and humidity control have been added. Often a combination of techniques is used
Brazil
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