1.
Agreste
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The agreste is a narrow zone of Brazil in the states of Rio Grande do Norte Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão. The agreste fades out after it reaches Rio Grande do Norte due to the break of the mountain-chain that blocks air currents from the Atlantic ocean and this barrier is what induces high rainfalls in the coastal Atlantic forest zone. Most of the agreste is hilly, its hills becoming higher at south and this land is mostly used for mixed farming, prevailing fruits, of which melons have especial importance. Like the sertão, the agreste is frequently affected by drought, ISBN 0-521-57659-8 Michael H. Glantz, Drought Follows The Plow, Cultivating Marginal Areas, published 1994 by Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44252-4 Fagan, Brian, Floods, Famines, and Emperors, El Niño, ISBN 0-465-01121-7 Nicholas G. Arons, Waiting for Rain, The Politics and Poetry of Drought in Northeast Brazil, published 2004 by University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-2433-5 Euclides da Cunha, Rebellion in the Backlands Fiction Graciliano Ramos, Vidas Secas, novel
2.
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
3.
Outback
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The Outback is the vast, remote interior of Australia. Culturally, the Outback is deeply ingrained in Australian heritage, history, early European exploration of inland Australia was sporadic. More focus was on the more accessible and fertile coastal areas, the first party to successfully cross the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney was led by Gregory Blaxland in 1813,25 years after the colony was established. This contrasts with the ill-fated Burke and Wills expedition in 1860–61 which was better funded. The Overland Telegraph line was constructed in the 1870s along the route identified by Stuart, mineral exploration continues as new mineral deposits are identified and developed. While the early explorers used horses to cross the outback, the first woman to make the riding a horse was Anna Hingley. The paucity of land use has led to the Outback being recognised globally as one of the largest remaining. The savanna of northern Australia are the largest, intact savanna regions in the world, in the south, the Great Western Woodlands, which occupy 16,000,000 hectares, an area larger than all of England, are the largest remaining temperate woodland left on Earth. Reflecting the wide climatic and geological variation, the Outback contains a wealth of distinctive, the Australian Outback is full of very important well-adapted wildlife, although much of it may not be immediately visible to the casual observer. Many animals, such as red kangaroos and dingoes, hide in bushes to rest, birdlife is prolific, most often seen at waterholes at dawn and dusk. Huge flocks of budgerigars, cockatoos, corellas and galahs are often sighted, on bare ground or roads during the winter, various species of snakes and lizards bask in the sun, but they are rarely seen during the summer months. Feral animals such as camels thrive in central Australia, brought to Australia by pastoralists and explorers, feral horses known as brumbies are station horses that have run wild. Feral pigs, foxes, cats and rabbits are other imported animals that also degrade the environment, so time, the Outback is home to a diverse set of animal species, such as the kangaroo, emu and dingo. The Dingo Fence was built to restrict dingo movements into agricultural areas towards the south east of the continent, the marginally fertile parts are primarily utilised as rangelands and have been traditionally used for sheep or cattle grazing, on cattle stations which are leased from the Federal Government. While small areas of the outback consist of soils the majority has exceedingly infertile palaeosols. Riversleigh, in Queensland, is one of Australias most renowned fossil sites and was recorded as a World Heritage site in 1994, the 100 km2 area contains fossil remains of ancient mammals, birds and reptiles of Oligocene and Miocene age. The largest industry across the Outback, in terms of the occupied, is pastoralism, in which cattle, sheep. Capitalizing on the lack of improvement and absence of fertiliser and pesticide use
4.
Northeast Region, Brazil
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The Northeast Region of Brazil is one of the five official and political regions of the country according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. For the socio-geographic area see Nordeste, of Brazils twenty-six states, it comprises nine, Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, along with the Fernando de Noronha archipelago. Chiefly known as Nordeste in Brazil, this region was the first to be discovered and colonized by the Portuguese and other European peoples, Nordestes dialects and rich culture, including its folklore, cuisines, music and literature, became the most easily distinguishable across the country. To this day, Nordeste is widely recognized for its history and culture, Nordeste stretches from the Atlantic seaboard in the northeast and southeast, northwest and west to the Amazon Basin and south through the Espinhaço highlands in southern Bahia. It encloses the São Francisco River and drainage basin, which were instrumental in the exploration, settlement, the region lies entirely within the earths tropical zone and encompasses Caatinga, Atlantic Forest and part of the Cerrado ecoregions. The climate is hot and semi-arid, varying from xeric in Caatinga, to mesic in Cerrado and hydric in the Atlantic Forest. The Northeast Region represents 18% of Brazilian territory, has a population of 53.6 million people, 28% of the population of the country. Nearly three quarters of the live in urban areas clustered along the Atlantic coast and about 15 million people live in the hinterland. It is a region, 58% of the population lives in poverty. Nordeste has nine international airports, and the region has the second largest number of passengers in Brazil, the Zona da Mata comprises the rainsforest zones of Nordeste in the humid eastern coast, where the regions largest capital cities are also located. The forest area was larger before suffering from centuries of deforestation and exploration. For many years, sugar cultivation in this region was the mainstay of Brazils economy. The sugar cane is cultivated on large estates and the owners of these had, since the escarpment does not generate any further rainfall on its slopes from the lifting of the trade winds, annual rainfall decreases steadily inland. After a relatively short distance, there is no longer enough rainfall to tropical rainforest. This transitional zone is known as the agreste and because it is located on the escarpment, was not generally used whilst flatter land was abundant. In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia, in Brazil, the geographical term referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century. Geographically, the Sertão consists mainly of low uplands that form part of the Brazilian Highlands, in the north, the Sertão extends to the northern coastal plains of Rio Grande do Norte state, whilst in the south it fades out in the northern fringe of Minas Gerais. Because the Sertão lies close to the equator, temperatures remain nearly uniform throughout the year and are typically tropical, however, the sertão is distinctive in its low rainfall compared to other areas of Brazil
5.
Portuguese discoveries
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Portuguese discoveries are the numerous territories and maritime routes discovered by the Portuguese as a result of their intensive maritime exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries. Portuguese sailors were at the vanguard of European overseas exploration, discovering and mapping the coasts of Africa, Canada, Asia and Brazil, in what became known as the Age of Discovery. Ten years later, in 1498, Vasco da Gama led the first fleet around Africa to India, arriving in Calicut, Portuguese explorations then proceeded to southeast Asia, where they reached Japan in 1542, forty-four years after their first arrival in India. In 1500, the Portuguese nobleman Pedro Álvares Cabral became the first European to discover Brazil, in 1139 the Kingdom of Portugal achieved independence from León, having doubled its area with the Reconquista under Afonso Henriques. In 1297 king Denis of Portugal took personal interest in the development of exports, on May 10,1293 he instituted a maritime insurance fund for Portuguese traders living in the County of Flanders, which were to pay certain sums according to tonnage, accrued to them when necessary. Portuguese imported armors and munitions, fine clothes and several manufactured products from Flanders, Genoese and Florentine communities established since then in Portugal, who profited from the enterprise and financial experience of these rivals of the Republic of Venice. Only the sea offered alternatives, with most people settling in fishing and trading coastal areas, young prince Henry the Navigator was there and became aware of profit possibilities in the Saharan trade routes. Later his brother Prince Pedro, granted him a Royal Flush of all profits from trading within the areas discovered, soon the Atlantic islands of Madeira and Azores were reached. There wheat and later sugarcane were cultivated, like in Algarve, by the Genoese and this helped them become more wealthy. Henry the Navigator took the role in encouraging Portuguese maritime exploration until his death in 1460. At the time, Europeans did not know what lay beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast, in 1420 Zarco and Teixeira returned with Bartolomeu Perestrelo and began Portuguese settlement of the islands. A Portuguese attempt to capture Grand Canary, one of the nearby Canary Islands, at around the same time as the unsuccessful attack on the Canary Islands, the Portuguese began to explore the North African coast. Sailors feared what lay beyond Cape Bojador, and whether it was possible to return once it was passed, in 1434 one of Prince Henrys captains, Gil Eanes, passed this obstacle. Once this psychological barrier had been crossed, it became easier to further along the coast. Within two decades of exploration, Portuguese ships bypassed the Sahara, Henry suffered a serious setback in 1437 after the failure of an expedition to capture Tangier, having encouraged his brother, King Edward, to mount an overland attack from Ceuta. The Portuguese army was defeated and only escaped destruction by surrendering Prince Ferdinand, after the defeat at Tangier, Henry retired to Sagres on the southern tip of Portugal where he continued to direct Portuguese exploration until his death in 1460. In 1443 Prince Pedro, Henrys brother, granted him the monopoly of navigation, war, using this new maritime technology, Portuguese navigators reached ever more southerly latitudes, advancing at an average rate of one degree a year. Senegal and Cape Verde Peninsula were reached in 1445, in 1446, Álvaro Fernandes pushed on almost as far as present-day Sierra Leone and the Gulf of Guinea was reached in the 1460s
6.
Alagoas
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Alagoas is one of the 27 states of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders, Pernambuco, Sergipe, Bahia, and the Atlantic Ocean and it occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti. Its capital is the city of Maceió, next to last Brazilian state in area and 16th in population, it is one of the greatest producers of sugarcane and coconuts in the country and has an economy based on cattle raising. Land of the sururu, lagoon shellfish which serves as food for the coastal population, initially, the Alagoano territory constituted the southern part of the Captaincy of Pernambuco and only gained its autonomy in 1817. Its occupation pushed the expansion of the captaincys sugarcane farming, which required new areas of cultivation, thus arose Porto Calvo, Alagoas and Penedo, nuclei which guided the colonization, economic, and social life of the region for a long time. The Dutch invasion in Pernambuco was extended to Alagoas in 1631, the invaders were expelled in 1645, after intense fighting in Porto Calvo, leaving the economy totally disorganized. The escape of African slaves during the Dutch invasion created a labour shortage problem on the sugarcane plantations. Grouped in villages called quilombos, the Africans were only completely dominated at the end of the 17th century with the destruction of the most important quilombo, during the empire, the separatist and republican movement the Confederation of the Equator received the support of noteworthy Alagoano figures. Throughout the 1840s, political life was marked by the conflict between the lisos, conservatives, and the cabeludos, liberals, delmiro Gouveia was killed in October 1917 in circumstances still unclarified, after being pressured, according to rumor, to sell his factory to competing foreign firms. After his death, his machines would be destroyed and thrown into Paulo Afonso Falls, the suffix -ano is characteristic of Brazil, pernambucano, alagoano, sergipano, baiano, goiano, and later acriano. The states name originates with the lakes along its coast near the city of Maceió, the coast is bordered by fringing reefs and many fine beaches. This is the area dominated by sugar cane. Still farther inland lies the Sertão of the Northeast region of the nation, the Sertão is a high dry region dominated by scrub that is often thorn-filled and sometimes toxic, the caatinga. This area and its people are famed in legend and song and it is the land of the cowboy who is clad from head to toe with very thick leather to avoid the sharp vegetation. During the first three centuries of its history, Alagoas was part of the captaincy of Pernambuco, only changing into an independent captaincy in 1817. Initially, in the first years of the 16th century, Alagoas settlement went on slowly, in the period of the 16th and 17th centuries, French pirates invaded its territory attracted by the commerce of Brazil wood. Some time later, Duarte Coelho, owner of the captaincy of Pernambuco, gave the control of the back to the Portuguese. In 1630, the territory was taken by the Dutch, whose interest was to manage the commerce of sugarcane in most parts of the region of Brazil
7.
Bahia
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Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the 4th-largest Brazilian state by population and the 5th-largest by area, Bahias capital is the city of Salvador, located on a spit of land separating the Bay of All Saints from the Atlantic. Once a monarchial stronghold dominated by agricultural, slaving, and ranching interests, the name of the state derives from the earlier captaincy of Bahia de Todos os Santos, named for Bay of All Saints, a major feature of its coastline. The bay itself was named by the explorer Amerigo Vespucci during his second voyage and he named it after his parish church in Florence, San Salvatore di Ognissanti. Over time, the bay became distinguished as the Bay of All Saints, the state as Bahia, Bahia is bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, with its Bay of All Saints the largest in Brazil. In the north, it is now bordered by Sergipe, Alagoas, Pernambuco, in the northwest, it is bordered by Tocantins. In the southwest, it borders Goiás, and in the south it is bordered by Espírito Santo, the state is crossed from north to south by the Diamantina Tableland, which divides it into two distinct geographical zones. To the east, the soil is fertile and the rain falls regularly, the western area is more arid and its predominate vegetation the cerrado. The natural aridity was greatly worsened over the 19th century by the habit of starting wildfires each year to improve the quality of the grass. The Green Road, a road that connects Mangue Seco in the far north to Praia do Forte, for this reason, the route is sometimes more than 10 km from the beach. At Praia do Forte, the road meets the Coconut Road leading to Salvador, passing through spots, in this region is located Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport. The largest bay on the Brazilian coast, the Bay of All Saints has a number of islands with tropical beaches. It is the largest navigable bay in Brazil and one of the most favorite spots for sports, due to its regular breezes, medium annual temperature of 26 °C. Major popular events and sport activities occur throughout the year, beginning on January 1, the islands of the bay are a separate attraction. Some are privately owned, others were declared a state heritage, other islands are the patrimony of 12 municipalities located around the bay. Only a few are uninhabited and many have small communities where the live on fishing. All have common characteristics, such a sea, dense vegetation, especially coconuts. Of the 56 islands, the most important are Itaparica, Madre de Deus, Maré, Frades, Medo, the Dendê Coast, south of Salvador, is surrounded by verdant vegetation, clear waters, islands, bays, coral reefs and a very diversified fauna
8.
Pernambuco
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Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. The state of Pernambuco also includes the archipelago Fernando de Noronha and its capital and largest city, Recife, is one of the most important economic and urban hubs in the country. As of 2013 estimates, Recifes metropolitan area is the fifth most populous in the country, in 1982 the city of Olinda, the second oldest city in Brazil, was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Recife, the capital and Olinda have one of the most traditional Brazilian Carnivals. Both have architecture of Portugal, with centuries-old casarões and churches, kilometers of beaches, the proximity of the equator guarantees sunshine throughout the year, with average temperatures of 26 °C. Pernambuco comprises a narrow coastal zone, a high inland plateau. Ranges of these form the boundary lines with three states–the Serra dos Irmãos and Serra Vermelha with Piauí, the Serra do Araripe with Ceará. The coastal area is fertile, and was covered by the humid Pernambuco coastal forests. It is now place to extensive sugar cane plantations and it has a hot, humid climate, relieved to some extent by the south-east trade winds. The middle zone, called the region, has a drier climate and lighter vegetation, including the semi-deciduous Pernambuco interior forests. The inland region, called the sertão is high, stony, and dry, the climate is characterized by hot days and cool nights. There are two defined seasons, a rainy season from March to June, and a dry season for the remaining months. The interior of the state is covered mostly by the dry thorny scrub vegetation called caatinga, the Rio São Francisco is the main water source for this area. The climate is mild in the countryside of the state because of the Borborema Plateau. Some towns are located more than 1000 meters above sea level, the island of Fernando de Noronha in the Atlantic Ocean,535 km northeast of Recife, has been part of Pernambuco since 1988. The rivers of the include a number of small plateau streams flowing southward to the São Francisco River. The former are the Moxotó, Ema, Pajeú, Terra Nova, Brigida, Boa Vista and Pontai, a large tributary of the Uná, the Rio Jacuhipe, forms part of the boundary line with Alagoas. Originally inhabited by tribes of Tupi-Guarani speaking indigenous peoples, Pernambuco was first settled by the Portuguese in the 16th century
9.
Rio Grande do Norte
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Rio Grande do Norte is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern region of the country, occupying the northeasternmost tip of the South American continent. Because of its position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal and it is the land of the folklorist Luís da Câmara Cascudo and, according to NASA, it has the purest air in the Americas. Its 410 km of sand, much sun, coconut palms, Rocas Atoll, the only such feature in the Atlantic Ocean, is part of the state. The state is also closest to the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha, Rio Grande do Norte is dominated by its coastline. The state is famed for its beaches and sand dunes, and the air is, according to NASA, two climates predominate, humid tropical, in the oriental littoral, and semi-arid, in the remaining of the State. There are also many mangroves in the state, and the interior is dominated by rainforest, Rocas Atoll in the Atlantic Ocean,260 km Northeast of Natal, also belongs to the state of Rio Grande do Norte. It is contained in the fully protected Atol das Rocas Biological Reserve, the first European to reach the region may have been the Spaniard Alonso de Ojeda in 1499. The Vespucci expedition also named the Potengi river, whose considerably large mouth contrasted with the bodies of water, Rio Grande, after which the Captaincy, Province. For decades thereafter, no permanent European settlement was established in the area, in the 16th century, it was explored by French pirates in search for brazilwood. In 1598, the Portuguese built the Forte dos Reis Magos and, in the following year, rasing cattle and sugarcane plantation lifted the local development and economy. In 1633, the became a battleground between the expansionist Portuguese, seeking to take more land for their Brazilian territories, and the Dutch. After a short period of peace and prosperity in Olinda and Recife, the prices went down in the market of Amsterdam. The economic problems led the Portuguese settlers and native Brazilians to revolt against the Dutch in what is today as the massacres of Cunhaú. The governor of Bahia promised new Portuguese troops, but most of the rebels were Africans and Amerindians, in 1654, the Dutch were finally cast out. During World War II, Rio Grande do Norte was used as an Allied airbase from which to air raids on German-occupied North Africa. In 1964, Latin Americas first space launch site was constructed in Rio Grande do Norte, Barreira do Inferno, which was often referred to as the Brazilian NASA. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimates that the population of Rio Grande do Norte was 3,168,133 on December 1,2010, multiracial people make up 52. 48% of the total population
10.
Minas Gerais
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Minas Gerais is a state in the north of Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product, Minas Gerais is the state with the largest number of Brazilian presidents. With an area of 586,528 square kilometres —larger than Metropolitan France—it is the fourth most extensive state in Brazil. In the south, the tourist points are the mineral spas, such as Caxambu, Lambari, São Lourenço, Poços de Caldas, São Thomé das Letras, Monte Verde. The landscape of the State is marked by mountains, valleys, in the Serra do Cipó, Sete Lagoas, Cordisburgo and Lagoa Santa, the caves and waterfalls are the attractions. Some of Brazils most famous caverns are located there, in recent years, the state has emerged as one of the largest economic forces of Brazil, exploring its great economic potential. Two interpretations are given for the origin of the name Minas Gerais and it comes from Minas dos Matos Gerais, the former name of the colonial province. Another explanation is that this ignores the two large geographical spaces which conformed the state in its history, the region of the mines, and these corresponded to the areas of Sertão which were farther and hard to access from the mining spots. The confusion comes from the fact that the term Gerais is taken as an adjective to Minas in the first version, Minas Gerais is in the north of the southeastern subdivision of Brasil, which also contains the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Espírito Santo. It borders on Bahia, Goiás, Mato Grosso do Sul, the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro and it also shares a short boundary with the Distrito Federal. Minas Gerais is situated between 14°1358 and 22°5400 S latitude and between 39°5132 and 51°0235 W longitude and it is larger in area than Metropolitan France or Spain. Minas Gerais features some of the longest rivers in Brazil, most notably the São Francisco, the Paraná and to a lesser extent, the state also holds many hydroelectric power plants, including Furnas. The most notable one is the Pico da Bandeira, the third highest mountain in Brazil at 2890 m, the state also has huge reserves of iron and sizeable reserves of gold and gemstones, including emerald, topaz and aquamarine mines. Emeralds found in location are comparable to the best Colombia-origin emeralds. Each region of the state has a character, geographically. The central and eastern area of the state is hilly and rocky, around Lagoa Santa and Sete Lagoas a typical Karst topography with caves and lakes is found. Some of the mountains are almost entirely iron ore, which led to extensive mining, recent advances in environmental policy helped to put limits to mining. Vale do Aços largest cities are Ipatinga, Coronel Fabriciano and Timóteo, now that mining is restricted large areas of forest are being removed for timber, charcoal and to clear land for cattle ranching
11.
Vaquero
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The vaquero is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that originated on the Iberian Peninsula. Today the vaquero is still a part of the doma vaquera, the vaquero traditions developed in Mexico from methodology brought to Mesoamerica from Spain also became the foundation for the North American cowboy. They were the first cowboys in the region, in the modern United States and Canada, remnants of two major and distinct vaquero traditions remain, known today as the Texas tradition and the Spanish, Vaquero, or California tradition. The natural horsemanship movement openly acknowledges much influence of the vaquero tradition, the cowboys of the Great Basin still use the term buckaroo, which may be a corruption of vaquero, to describe themselves and their tradition. Vaquero is a Spanish word for a herder of cattle and it derives from vaca, meaning cow, which in turn comes from the Latin word vacca. The word buckaroo is generally believed to be a version of vaquero. Buckaroo first appeared in American English in 1827 The word may also have developed with influences from the English word buck or bucking, the behavior of young, untrained horses. In 1960, one etymologist suggested that buckaroo derives, through Gullah, buckra, from the Ibibio and Efik, mbakara, meaning man, master. Although that derivation was later rejected, another possibility advanced was that buckaroo was a pun on vaquero, the origins of the vaquero tradition come from Spain, beginning with the hacienda system of medieval Spain. This style of cattle ranching spread throughout much of the Iberian peninsula, both regions possessed a dry climate with sparse grass, and thus large herds of cattle required vast amounts of land in order to obtain sufficient forage. The need to cover greater than a person on foot could manage gave rise to the development of the horseback-mounted vaquero. Certain aspects of the Arabic tradition, such as the hackamore, the traditions of Spain were transformed by the geographic, environmental and cultural circumstances of New Spain, which later became Mexico and the Southwestern United States. In turn, the land and people of the Americas also saw dramatic changes due to Spanish influence, the arrival of horses in the Americas was particularly significant, as equines had been extinct there since the end of the prehistoric ice age. However, horses quickly multiplied in America and became crucial to the success of the Spanish, the Mustang and other colonial horse breeds are now called wild, but in reality are feral horses—descendants of domesticated animals. The Spanish tradition evolved further in what today is Mexico and the Southwestern United States into the vaquero of northern Mexico, most vaqueros were men of mestizo and Native American origin while most of the hacendados were ethnically Spanish. Mexican traditions spread both South and North, influencing equestrian traditions from Argentina to Canada, as English-speaking traders and settlers expanded westward, English and Spanish traditions, language and culture merged to some degree. American traders along what became known as the Santa Fe Trail had similar contacts with vaquero life. They caught the horses that roamed the Great Plains and the San Joaquin Valley of California, distinct regional traditions arose in the United States, particularly in Texas and California, distinguished by local culture, geography and historical patterns of settlement
12.
Cowboy
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A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the traditions of northern Mexico and became a figure of special significance. A subtype, called a wrangler, specifically tends the horses used to work cattle, in addition to ranch work, some cowboys work for or participate in rodeos. There are also cattle handlers in many parts of the world, particularly South America and Australia. The cowboy has deep historic roots tracing back to Spain and the earliest European settlers of the Americas, over the centuries, differences in terrain, climate and the influence of cattle-handling traditions from multiple cultures created several distinct styles of equipment, clothing and animal handling. As the ever-practical cowboy adapted to the world, the cowboys equipment and techniques also adapted to some degree. The English word cowboy has an origin from several earlier terms that referred to both age and to cattle or cattle-tending work, the word cowboy appeared in the English language by 1725. It appears to be a direct English translation of vaquero, a Spanish word for an individual who managed cattle while mounted on horseback and it was derived from vaca, meaning cow, which came from the Latin word vacca. Another English word for a cowboy, buckaroo, is an anglicization of vaquero, originally, the term may have been intended literally—a boy who tends cows. By 1849 it had developed its sense as an adult cattle handler of the American West. Variations on the word cowboy appeared later, cowhand appeared in 1852, and cowpoke in 1881, originally restricted to the individuals who prodded cattle with long poles to load them onto railroad cars for shipping. Names for a cowboy in American English include buckaroo, cowpoke, cowhand, the word cowboy also had English language roots beyond simply being a translation from Spanish. Originally, the English word cowherd was used to describe a cattle herder, and often referred to a preadolescent or early adolescent boy and this word is very old in the English language, originating prior to the year 1000. In antiquity, herding of sheep, cattle and goats was often the job of minors, on western ranches today, the working cowboy is usually an adult. Responsibility for herding cattle or other livestock is no longer considered a job suitable for children or early adolescents. However, both boys and girls growing up in a ranch environment often learn to ride horses and perform basic ranch skills as soon as they are physically able, such youths, by their late teens, are often given responsibilities for cowboy work on the ranch. The term cowboy was used during the American Revolution to describe American fighters who opposed the movement for independence, in the same period, a number of guerilla bands operated in Westchester County, which marked the dividing line between the British and American forces. These groups were made up of local farmhands who would ambush convoys, there were two separate groups, the skinners fought for the pro-independence side, the cowboys supported the British
13.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
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Brazilian Highlands
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In addition, the vast majority of Brazils population lives in the highlands or on the narrow coastal region immediately adjacent to it. Ancient basaltic lava flows gave birth to much of the region, however, the time of dramatic geophysical activity is long past, as there is now no seismic or volcanic activity. Erosion has also played a part in shaping the Highlands, forming extensive sedimentary deposits. It was once almost completely covered by the Atlantic Rainforest, one of the richest areas of biodiversity in the world, southern Plateau, advancing inland in the southern and southern-central portions of the country. Sedimentary rocks covered partially by basaltic lava spills that form the ground known as purple land. Large portions of this region were covered by the Atlantic Rainforest, while araucaria highland forest. Central Plateau, occupying the central portions of Brazil, with sedimentary, approximately 85% was once covered by cerrado vegetation, of which only a small portion remains intact. In addition to the regions, several adjoining or enclosed mountain ranges are considered to be part of the Brazilian Highlands. Plateaus of Brazil Guiana Shield Serras de Sudeste
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Planalto da Borborema
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The Borborema Plateau is a plateau in northeastern Brazil which extends across the states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Rio Grande do Norte. The plateau is the northeasternmost portion of the Brazilian Highlands and is the most relevant watershed of its region and it ranges approximately 400 kilometres from north to south and 200 kilometres from east to west. More than 100 rivers originate from the plateau, including the Moxotó, Mundaú, Pajeú, Paraíba do Norte, Seridó, the Borborema Plateau serves as an orographic barrier, despite its relatively low elevation, against the moist easterly winds of the Atlantic Ocean. Areas west of the plateau, which make up part of the sertão, are arid, the Pajeú River, the largest tributary of the São Francisco River, originates from the Borborema. The Borborema Plateau is part of a huge anastomosing shear zone, the plateau is composed primarily of igneous and metamorphic rock
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Serra da Ibiapaba
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The Serra de Ibiapaba also known as Serra Grande, Chapada da Ibiabapa e Cuesta da Ibiapaba, is an upland in northeastern Brazil, which lies on the boundary of Piauí and Ceará states. The range runs north and south, extending from near the Atlantic coast in the north to connect with the Serra do Araripe, which forms the southern boundary of Ceará. The Poti River bisects the range, and the southern portion, an attractive region for natural wealth which was already inhabited by various indigenous groups. People who lived already negotiating several natural products with European peoples, initially inhabited by tabajaras and tapuias Indians, as the Iracema Indian woman who was bathing in the Bica do Ipú was fairly portrayed in the Iracema book by José de Alencar. In the highlands of Ibiabapa are located the towns of Viçosa do Ceará, Tianguá, Ubajara, São Benedito, the elevation ranges around 700 to 850 meters above sea level. The Ubajara National Park is located on Serra da Ibiapaba and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. article name needed
17.
Jaguaribe River
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The Jaguaribe River is a highly seasonal river in Ceará state of northeastern Brazil. Two large dams were constructed across the Jaguaribe, the Orós Dam, completed in 1960, the Castanhão Dam flooded the city of Jaguaribara, which was rebuilt nearby as the city of Jaguaribara Nova. The Jaguaribe River is formed by the union of the Carapateiro and Trici rivers, thus created, the Jaguaribe flows north for about 560 kilometers and enters the Atlantic Ocean. The Jaguaribe is infamous for its nature, it runs dry for months before, all of sudden, bursting its banks with water
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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
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Intertropical Convergence Zone
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The Intertropical Convergence Zone, known by sailors as the doldrums, is the area encircling the earth near the equator where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge. When it lies near the equator, it is called the near-equatorial trough, where the ITCZ is drawn into and merges with a monsoonal circulation, it is sometimes referred to as a monsoon trough, a usage more common in Australia and parts of Asia. In the seamens speech the zone is referred to as the doldrums because of its weather patterns with stagnant calms. The ITCZ appears as a band of clouds, usually thunderstorms, in the Northern Hemisphere, the trade winds move in a southwestern direction from the northeast, while in the Southern Hemisphere, they move northwestward from the southeast. When the ITCZ is positioned north or south of the equator, for instance, when the ITCZ is situated north of the equator, the southeast trade wind changes to a southwest wind as it crosses the equator. The ITCZ is formed by vertical motion largely appearing as convective activity of thunderstorms driven by heating, which effectively draw air in. The ITCZ is effectively a tracer of the branch of the Hadley cell. The dry descending branch is the horse latitudes, the location of the intertropical convergence zone varies over time with the seasons. Over land, it moves back and forth across the following the suns zenith point. Over the oceans, where the convergence zone is better defined, sometimes, a double ITCZ forms, with one located north and another south of the equator, one of which is usually stronger than the other. When this occurs, a ridge of high pressure forms between the two convergence zones. The South Pacific convergence zone is a reverse-oriented, or west-northwest to east-southeast aligned and it lies just south of the equator during the Southern Hemisphere warm season, but can be more extratropical in nature, especially east of the International Date Line. It is considered the largest and most important piece of the ITCZ, longer term changes in the intertropical convergence zone can result in severe droughts or flooding in nearby areas. In some cases, the ITCZ may become narrow, especially when it moves away from the equator, there appears to be a 15- to 25-day cycle in thunderstorm activity along the ITCZ, which is roughly half the wavelength of the Madden–Julian oscillation. Within the ITCZ the average winds are slight, unlike the north and south of the equator where the trade winds feed. Early sailors named this belt of calm the doldrums because of the inactivity, to find oneself becalmed in this region in a hot and muggy climate could mean death in an era when wind was the only effective way to propel ships across the ocean. Even today leisure and competitive sailors attempt to cross the zone as quickly as possible as the erratic weather and wind patterns may cause unexpected delays. Tropical cyclogenesis depends upon low-level vorticity as one of its six requirements, surges of higher pressure from high latitudes can enhance tropical disturbances along its axis
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Fortaleza
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Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. It belongs to the Metropolitan mesoregion of Fortaleza and microregion of Fortaleza, the motto of Fortaleza, present in its coat of arms is the Latin word Fortitudine, which in Portuguese means strength, value, courage. Fortaleza in 2013 was the twelfth richest city in the country in GDP and second in the Northeast and it also has the third richest metropolitan area in the North and Northeast regions. It is an important industrial and commercial center of Brazil, the nations largest municipal purchasing power. According to the Ministry of Tourism, the city reached the marks of second most desired destination of Brazil, the BR-116, the most important highway of the country, starts in Fortaleza. The municipality is part of the Common Market of Mercosur Cities, residents of the city are known as Fortalezenses. Fortaleza is one of the three leading cities in the Northeast region together with Recife and Salvador, the city was one of the host cities of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Additionally, Fortaleza was one of the host cities of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, Fortalezas history began on February 2,1500, when Spaniard Vicente Pinzón landed in Mucuripes cove and named the new land Santa Maria de la Consolación. Because of the Treaty of Tordesillas, the discovery was never officially sanctioned, colonisation began in 1603, when the Portuguese Pero Coelho de Souza constructed the Fort of São Tiago and founded the settlement of Nova Lisboa. After a victory over the French in 1612, Martins Soares Moreno expanded the Fort of São Tiago, in 1630 the Dutch invaded the Brazilian Northeast and in 1637 they took the Fort of São Sebastião and ruled over Ceará. In battles with the Portuguese and natives in 1644 the fort was destroyed, under captain Matthias Beck the Dutch West Indies Company built a new fortress by the banks of river Pajeú. Fort Schoonenborch officially opened on August 19,1649, Fortaleza was officially founded as a village 1726, becoming the capital of Ceará state in 1799. During the 19th century, Fortaleza was consolidated as a centre in Ceará. In 1824, the city was targeted by the revolutionaries of Confederation of the Equator, between the years 1846 and 1877, the city went through a period of enrichment, economic and infrastructural improvement. In 1922, Fortaleza reached its first hundred thousand inhabitants with the annexation of the cities of Messejana and Parangaba, in 1954, the first university in the city was created, the Universidade Federal do Ceará. In 1983 DIF I started to integrate the territory of the new city of Maracanaú, in the 1980s, Fortaleza exceeded Recife in population terms, becoming the second most populous city in Northeastern Brazil, with 2,571,896 inhabitants. Fortaleza has a tropical climate, specifically a tropical wet and dry climate, with high temperatures. However, these conditions are relieved by pleasant winds blowing from the ocean
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Drought
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A drought is a period of below-average precipitation in a given region, resulting in prolonged shortages in its water supply, whether atmospheric, surface water or ground water. A drought can last for months or years, or may be declared after as few as 15 days and it can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region and harm to the local economy. Annual dry seasons in the tropics significantly increase the chances of a drought developing, periods of heat can significantly worsen drought conditions by hastening evaporation of water vapour. Many plant species, such as those in the family Cactaceae, have drought tolerance adaptations like reduced leaf area, some others survive dry periods as buried seeds. Semi-permanent drought produces arid biomes such as deserts and grasslands, prolonged droughts have caused mass migrations and humanitarian crises. Most arid ecosystems have inherently low productivity, the most prolonged drought ever in the world in recorded history occurred in the Atacama Desert in Chile. Mechanisms of producing precipitation include convective, stratiform, and orographic rainfall, precipitation can be divided into three categories, based on whether it falls as liquid water, liquid water that freezes on contact with the surface, or ice. Drought are mainly course by in low rain areas, if these factors do not support precipitation volumes sufficient to reach the surface over a sufficient time, the result is a drought. Once a region is within drought, feedback mechanisms such as local arid air, hot conditions which can promote warm core ridging, within the tropics, distinct, wet and dry seasons emerge due to the movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone or Monsoon trough. The dry season greatly increases drought occurrence, and is characterized by its low humidity, with watering holes, because of the lack of these watering holes, many grazing animals are forced to migrate due to the lack of water and feed to more fertile spots. Examples of such animals are zebras, elephants, and wildebeest, because of the lack of water in the plants, bushfires are common. Since water vapor becomes more energetic with increasing temperature, more water vapor is required to increase relative humidity values to 100% at higher temperatures, periods of warmth quicken the pace of fruit and vegetable production, increase evaporation and transpiration from plants, and worsen drought conditions. Drier and hotter weather occurs in parts of the Amazon River Basin, Colombia, winters during the El Niño are warmer and drier than average conditions in the Northwest, northern Midwest, and northern Mideast United States, so those regions experience reduced snowfalls. Conditions are also drier than normal from December to February in south-central Africa, mainly in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Botswana. Direct effects of El Niño resulting in drier conditions occur in parts of Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, increasing bush fires, worsening haze, drier-than-normal conditions are also in general observed in Queensland, inland Victoria, inland New South Wales, and eastern Tasmania from June to August. As warm water spreads from the west Pacific and the Indian Ocean to the east Pacific, it causes extensive drought in the western Pacific. Singapore experienced the driest February in 2014 since records began in 1869, with only 6.3 mm of rain falling in the month, the years 1968 and 2005 had the next driest Februaries, when 8.4 mm of rain fell. Human activity can directly trigger exacerbating factors such as farming, excessive irrigation, deforestation
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Caatinga
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Caatinga is a type of desert vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name Caatinga is a Tupi word meaning white forest or white vegetation, Caatinga is a xeric shrubland and thorn forest, which consists primarily of small, thorny trees that shed their leaves seasonally. Cacti, thick-stemmed plants, thorny brush, and arid-adapted grasses make up the ground layer, many annual plants grow, flower, and die during the brief rainy season. Caatinga falls entirely within earths Tropical zone and is one of 6 major ecoregions of Brazil, including the Amazon Basin, Pantanal, Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest and it covers 850,000 km², nearly 10% of Brazils territory. It is home to 26 million people and more than 2000 species of plants, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, birds. Caatinga covers the portion of northeastern Brazil bordering the Atlantic seaboard. The Caatinga includes several enclaves of humid tropical forest, known as the Caatinga enclaves moist forests, the Caatinga comprises 850,000 km², about 10% of the surface area of Brazil. By comparison, it is nine times the surface area of Portugal, whence came its early European settlers. The Caatinga has only two distinguishable seasons and these are the winter, when it is very hot and dry, and the summer when it is hot and rainy. During the dry periods there is no foliage or undergrowth. The vegetation is dry and the roots begin to protrude through the surface of the stony soil. They do this in order to water before it is evaporated. All leaves fall off the trees to reduce transpiration, thus lessening the amount of water that is lost in the dry season, during the peak periods of drought the Caatingas soil can reach temperatures of up to 60 °C. With all the foliage and undergrowth dead during the periods and all the trees having no leaves the Caatinga has a yellow-grey. The Caatinga is very dry place in Brazil, with frequent droughts, the drought usually ends in December or January, when the rainy season starts. Immediately after the first rains, the grey, desert-like landscape starts to transform, small plants start growing in the now moist soil and trees grow back their leaves. At this time, the rivers that were dry during the past 6 or 7 months, start to fill up. The Caatinga is poorly represented in the Brazilian Conservation Area network, with only 1% in Integral Protection Conservation Areas, Caatinga harbors a unique biota, with thousands of endemic species
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Cashew
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The cashew tree is a tropical evergreen tree that produces the cashew nut and the cashew apple. It can grow as high as 14 m, but the dwarf cashew, growing up to 6 m, has proved profitable, with earlier maturity. The cashew nut, often called a cashew, is widely consumed. It is eaten on its own, used in recipes, or processed into cashew cheese or cashew butter, the shell of the cashew seed yields derivatives that can be used in many applications from lubricants to paints. The cashew apple is a reddish to yellow fruit, whose pulp can be processed into a sweet. The species is native to northeastern Brazil. Major production of cashews occurs in Vietnam, Nigeria, India and its English name derives from the Portuguese name for the fruit of the cashew tree caju, which itself is derived from the Tupian word acajú, literally meaning nut that produces itself. The generic name Anacardium, originally from the Greek, refers to the location of the seed outside the core or heart of the fruit. A mid-seventeenth century ethnographic painting by Albert Eckhout, who accompanied Dutch governor-general Johan Maurits, the cashew tree is large and evergreen, growing to 14 m tall, with a short, often irregularly shaped trunk. The leaves are arranged, leathery textured, elliptic to obovate, 4–22 cm long and 2–15 cm broad. The flowers are produced in a panicle or corymb up to 26 cm long, each flower is small, pale green at first, then turning reddish, with five slender, acute petals 7–15 mm long. The largest cashew tree in the covers a area around 7,500 m2, it is located in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte. The fruit of the tree is an accessory fruit. What appears to be the fruit is an oval or pear-shaped structure, a hypocarpium, that develops from the pedicel, called the cashew apple, better known in Central America as marañón, it ripens into a yellow and/or red structure about 5–11 cm long. It is edible, and has a sweet smell and a sweet taste. The pulp of the apple is very juicy, but the skin is fragile. The true fruit of the tree is a kidney or boxing-glove shaped drupe that grows at the end of the cashew apple. The drupe develops first on the tree, and then the pedicel expands to become the cashew apple, within the true fruit is a single seed, which is often considered a nut, in the culinary sense
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Cotton
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Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus Gossypium in the family of Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, under natural conditions, the cotton bolls will tend to increase the dispersal of the seeds. The plant is a native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, Africa. The greatest diversity of wild species is found in Mexico, followed by Australia. Cotton was independently domesticated in the Old and New Worlds, the fiber is most often spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft, breathable textile. Current estimates for world production are about 25 million tonnes or 110 million bales annually, China is the worlds largest producer of cotton, but most of this is used domestically. The United States has been the largest exporter for many years, in the United States, cotton is usually measured in bales, which measure approximately 0.48 cubic meters and weigh 226.8 kilograms. Cotton cultivation in the region is dated to the Indus Valley Civilization, the Indus cotton industry was well-developed and some methods used in cotton spinning and fabrication continued to be used until the industrialization of India. Between 2000 and 1000 BC cotton became widespread across much of India, for example, it has been found at the site of Hallus in Karnataka dating from around 1000 BC. Cotton fabrics discovered in a cave near Tehuacán, Mexico have been dated to around 5800 BC, the domestication of Gossypium hirsutum in Mexico is dated between 3400 and 2300 BC. Cotton was grown upriver, made into nets, and traded with fishing villages along the coast for supplies of fish. The Spanish who came to Mexico and Peru in the early 16th century found the people growing cotton and this may be a reference to tree cotton, Gossypium arboreum, which is a native of the Indian subcontinent. According to the Columbia Encyclopedia, Cotton has been spun, woven and it clothed the people of ancient India, Egypt, and China. Hundreds of years before the Christian era, cotton textiles were woven in India with matchless skill, in Iran, the history of cotton dates back to the Achaemenid era, however, there are few sources about the planting of cotton in pre-Islamic Iran. The planting of cotton was common in Merv, Ray and Pars of Iran, in Persian poets poems, especially Ferdowsis Shahname, there are references to cotton. Marco Polo refers to the products of Persia, including cotton. John Chardin, a French traveler of the 17th century who visited the Safavid Persia, during the Han dynasty, cotton was grown by Chinese peoples in the southern Chinese province of Yunnan. Mohamed Ali Pasha accepted the proposition and granted himself the monopoly on the sale and export of cotton in Egypt, and later dictated cotton should be grown in preference to other crops
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Biodiversity
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Biodiversity, a contraction of biological diversity, generally refers to the variety and variability of life on Earth. One of the most widely used definitions defines it in terms of the variability within species and it is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation within an area, biome, terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth, and is richest in the tropics and these tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10 per cent of earths surface, and contain about 90 percent of the worlds species. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, there are latitudinal gradients in species diversity. Biodiversity generally tends to cluster in hotspots, and has been increasing through time, the number and variety of plants, animals and other organisms that exist is known as biodiversity. It is a component of nature and it ensures the survival of human species by providing food, fuel, shelter, medicines. The richness of biodiversity depends on the conditions and area of the region. All species of plants taken together are known as flora and about 300,000 species of plants are known to date, all species of animals taken together are known as fauna which includes birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, insects, crustaceans, molluscs, etc. Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions, more than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earths current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described. More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousandth of one percent described, the total amount of related DNA base pairs on Earth is estimated at 5.0 x 1037 and weighs 50 billion tonnes. In comparison, the mass of the biosphere has been estimated to be as much as 4 TtC. In July 2016, scientists reported identifying a set of 355 genes from the Last Universal Common Ancestor of all living on Earth. The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, there are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old meta-sedimentary rocks discovered in Western Greenland. More recently, in 2015, remains of life were found in 4.1 billion-year-old rocks in Western Australia. According to one of the researchers, If life arose relatively quickly on Earth, then it could be common in the universe
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History of Brazil
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The history of Brazil starts with indigenous people in Brazil. Europeans arrived in Brazil at the opening of the 16th century, the first European to colonize Brazil was Pedro Álvares Cabral on April 22,1500 under the sponsorship of the Kingdom of Portugal. From the 16th to the early 19th century, Brazil was a colony, the countrys borders were only finalized in the early 20th century. On September 7,1822, the country declared its independence from Portugal, a military coup in 1889 established the First Brazilian Republic. The country has seen a dictatorship during Vargas Era and a period of rule under Brazilian military government. When Portuguese explorers arrived in Brazil, the region was inhabited by hundreds of different types of Jiquabu tribes, the dating of the origins of the first inhabitants, who were called Indians by the Portuguese, is still a matter of dispute among archaeologists. For this reason, very little is known about the history of Brazil before 1500, archaeological remains indicate a complex pattern of regional cultural developments, internal migrations, and occasional large state-like federations. At the time of European discovery, the territory of current day Brazil had as many as 2,000 tribes, the indigenous peoples were traditionally mostly semi-nomadic tribes who subsisted on hunting, fishing, gathering, and migrant agriculture. When the Portuguese arrived in 1500, the Natives were living mainly on the coast, initially, the Europeans saw the natives as noble savages, and Europeans began having children with the Native people right away. Tribal warfare, cannibalism and the pursuit of brazilwood for its treasured red dye convinced the Portuguese that they should Christianize the natives. But the Portuguese, like the Spanish in their South American possessions, had brought diseases with them. Measles, smallpox, tuberculosis, gonorrhea, and influenza killed tens of thousands of indigenous people, the diseases spread quickly along the indigenous trade routes, and whole tribes were likely annihilated without ever coming in direct contact with Europeans. There are so many theories regarding who was the first European to set foot on the now called Brazil. In April 1500, Brazil was claimed for Portugal on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese encountered stone-using natives divided into several tribes, many of whom shared the same Tupi–Guarani language family, and fought among themselves. Until 1529 Portugal had very little interest in Brazil mainly due to the profits gained through commerce with India, China. The system was a failure - only four lots were successfully occupied Pernambuco, São Vicente, Captaincy of Ilhéus, the captaincies gradually reverted to the Crown and became provinces and eventually states of the country. At first, settlers tried to enslave the natives as labor to work the fields, the initial exploration of Brazils interior was largely due to para-military adventurers, the bandeirantes, who entered the jungle in search of gold and Native slaves. However colonists were unable to sustainably enslave Natives, and Portuguese land owners soon turned to import millions of slaves from Africa, mortality rates for slaves in sugar and gold enterprises were dramatic, and there were often not enough females or proper conditions to replenish the slave population indigenously
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Brazilian literature
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Brazilian literature is the literature written in the Portuguese language by Brazilians or in Brazil, including works written prior to the country’s independence in 1822. Portuguese is a Romance dialect and the official language of Brazil. Lyrically, the poet Olavo Bilac, named it desconhecida e obscura. / Tuba de alto clangor, lira singela, / Que tens o trom e o silvo da procela, / E o arrolo da saudade e da ternura. Which roughly translates as unknown and obscure, / Tuba of high blare, delicate lyre, / That holds the frill, brazil’s most significant literary award is the Camões Prize, which it shares with the entire Portuguese sprachraum. As of 2016, Brazil has eleven recipients of the prize, Brazil also holds its own literary academy, the Brazilian Academy of Letters, a non-profit cultural organization pointed in perpetuating the care of the national language and literature. Brazilian literature has been very prolific, having as birth the letter of Pero Vaz de Caminha, the document that marks the discovery of Brazil, the country’s literature has encompassed several significant writers. One of the first extant documents that might be considered Brazilian literature is the Carta de Pero Vaz de Caminha and it is written by Pero Vaz de Caminha to Manuel I of Portugal, which contains a description of what Brazil looked like in 1500. Matos drew heavily from Baroque influences such as the Spanish poets Luis de Góngora, neoclassicism was widespread in Brazil during the mid-18th century, following the Italian style. Literature was often produced by members of temporary or semi-permanent academies, the most important literary centre in colonial Brazil was the prosperous Minas Gerais region, known for its gold mines, where a thriving proto-nationalist movement had begun. The most important poets were Cláudio Manuel da Costa, Tomás António Gonzaga, Alvarenga Peixoto and Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga, Gonzaga and Costa were exiled to Africa as a consequence. Neoclassicism, lasted for a long time, stifling innovation. It was only in 1836 that Romanticism began influencing Brazilian poetry on a large scale, a number of young poets, such as Casimiro de Abreu, began experimenting with the new style soon afterward. This period produced some of the first standard works of Brazilian literature, the key features of the literature of the newborn country are exaggerated affect, nationalism, celebration of nature and the initial introduction of colloquial language. Romantic literature soon became very popular, novelists like Joaquim Manuel de Macedo, Manuel Antônio de Almeida and José de Alencar published their works in serial form in the newspapers and became national celebrities. Around 1850, a transition began, centered on Álvares de Azevedo, azevedos short story collection Noite na Taverna and his poetry, collected posthumously in Lira dos Vinte Anos, became influential. Azevedo was largely influenced by the poetry of Lord Byron and Alfred de Musset and this second Romantic generation was obsessed with morbidity and death. At the same time, poets such as Castro Alves, who wrote of the horrors of slavery and these traits first appeared in Gonçalves Dias narrative poem I-Juca-Pirama, but soon became widespread. Iracema is especially lyrical, opening with five paragraphs of pure free-style prose poetry describing the title character, the decline of Romanticism, along with a series of social transformations, occurred in the middle of the 19th century
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Brazil socio-geographic division
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The Brazil socio-geographic division is a slightly different division than the Brazilian Division by Regions. The Southern region had an impact of the European immigration and has a large White majority, which contrasts with the Northern and Northeastern regions. In Northern Brazil, the main contribution was of the native Amerindians. In Northeastern Brazil, the contribution was of Africans, with a smaller European and Amerindian influence. The Southeastern region of Brazil had a balanced ratio of European, African and Amerindian admixture. This does not separate the country by borders of states, the north of Minas Gerais, for example, is in the socio-geographic division of Nordeste, but its southern part is in Centro-Sul. In the economic, social, historical, cultural, ethnic and geological point of view, however, it is not very used, mainly because it is unofficial, all official information by IBGE is listed by the criteria of regions. The division by Socio-Geographic similarities is used mainly in universities and private companies, the South of Brazil is the region with the largest percentage of Whites. According to the 2005 census, people of European ancestry account for 79. 6% of the population, in colonial times, this region had a very small population. The region what is now Southern Brazil was originally settled by Amerindian peoples, mostly Guarani, only a few settlers from São Paulo were living there. This situation made the region vulnerable to attacks from neighboring countries and this fact forced the King of Portugal to decide to populate the region. For this, settlers from the Portuguese Azores islands were sent to the coast, to stimulate the immigration to Brazil, the king offered several benefits for the Azorean couples. Between 1748 and 1756, six thousand Portuguese from the Azores moved to the coast of Santa Catarina and they were mainly newly married who were seeking a better life. At that time, the Azores were one of the poorest regions of Portugal and they established themselves mainly in the Santa Catarina Island, nowadays the region of Florianópolis. Later, some moved to Rio Grande do Sul, where they established Porto Alegre. The Azoreans lived on fishing and agriculture, especially flour and they composed over half of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarinas population in the late 18th century. The state of Paraná was settled by colonists from São Paulo due to their proximity, with the development of cattle in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, African slaves began arriving in large numbers. By 1822, Blacks were 50% of Rio Grande do Suls population and this number decreased to 25% in 1858 and to only 5. 2% in 2005
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Tieta
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Tieta is a novel written by the Brazilian author Jorge Amado, published on August 17,1977. Set in the 1970s, it narrates the return of Tieta to the village of Santana do Agreste,26 years after being beaten. The book is one of the authors longest narratives and follows the storys protagonist through three decades, in the work of Jorge Amado, the novel falls between those books that, in novelistic tone, chronicle the times and customs, without losing sight of social and political criticism. With her impetuosity and questioning spirit, Tieta joined the gallery of the great female characters, alongside Gabriela, Dona Flor. Banished for promiscuity at the age of 17, Antonieta returns from São Paulo to her village of Agreste in Bahia twenty-six years later. Thinking she is now a rich, respectable widow, her family, in 1989, a television version was made with Betty Faria in the main role. In 1996, a version was made with Sonia Braga in the role of Tieta. Tieta do Agreste at the Internet Movie Database
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International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
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Euclides da Cunha
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Euclides da Cunha was a Brazilian journalist, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is Os Sertões, an account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos. This book was a favorite of Robert Lowell, who ranked it above Tolstoy, jorge Luis Borges also commented on it in his short story Three Versions of Judas. The book was translated into English by Samuel Putnam and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1944, Euclides da Cunha was heavily influenced by Naturalism and its Darwinian proponents. Os Sertões characterised the coast of Brazil as a chain of civilisations while the interior was more primitively influenced, Euclides da Cunha was the basis for the character of The Journalist in Mario Vargas Llosas The War of the End of the World. Euclides da Cunha occupied the 7th chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters from 1903 until his death in 1909, Euclides da Cunha was born January 20,1866 in Cantagalo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he lived until he was three years old. He attended Escola Militar da Praia Vermelha, a school in Rio. He was readmitted to the Escola Militar in 1889 and he was admitted to the Brazilian War School in 1891. He was discharged from the Army in 1896 in order to dedicate himself to studying civil engineering, in 1897 he Accompanied the Army in the Campanha de Canudos, against a rebellious group of peasants under the leadership of Antonio Conselheiro. Between 7 August and 1 October, he was in the Sertão, on August 15,1909 he tried to kill a young Army lieutenant who was the lover of his wife, but his brother shot back in self-defense and Euclides da Cunha was killed. 1902 Os Sertões -- also Penguin Classics in a new translation, ISBN 978-0-14-310607-41907 Contrastes e confrontos, new York, Alfred A. Knoff, pp. 210–221
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Integrated Authority File
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The Integrated Authority File or GND is an international authority file for the organisation of personal names, subject headings and corporate bodies from catalogues. It is used mainly for documentation in libraries and increasingly also by archives, the GND is managed by the German National Library in cooperation with various regional library networks in German-speaking Europe and other partners. The GND falls under the Creative Commons Zero license, the GND specification provides a hierarchy of high-level entities and sub-classes, useful in library classification, and an approach to unambiguous identification of single elements. It also comprises an ontology intended for knowledge representation in the semantic web, available in the RDF format
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