Brazil–Portugal relations
Encyclopedia
Brazil–Portugal relations have spanned over four centuries, beginning in 1532 with the establishment of São Vicente
, the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas
, up to the present day. Relations between the two are intrinsically tied because of the Portuguese Empire
. They continue to be bound by a common language and ancestral lines in Portuguese Brazilians, which can be traced back hundreds of years.
Today, Brazil and Portugal share a privileged relationship, as evidenced in aligned political and diplomatic coordination, as well as economic, social, cultural, legal, technical and scientific cooperation.
. Until 1530 Portugal had very little interest in Brazil, mainly due to the high profits gained through commerce with India
, China
, and Indonesia
. Only in 1532 would the Portuguese establish their first colony in Brazil. In the first century of settlement, the Portuguese realized it would be difficult to use the natives
as slave labor
. They were not docile, had high mortality when exposed to Western diseases, could run away and hide rather easily. So Portugal turned to imported African slaves
for manual labor.
In the 16th and 17th centuries official revenue from Brazil was small — about 3 per cent of Portuguese public revenue in 1588 and 5 per cent in 1619. The economic activity was concentrated on a small population of settlers engaged in a highly profitable export–oriented sugarcane
industry in the Northeast
.
In the 1690s, the discovery of gold
, and in the 1720s diamonds further south in Minas Gerais
, opened new opportunities. The gold industry was at its peak around 1750, with production around 15 tons a year, but as the best deposits were exhausted, output and exports declined. In the first half of the 18th century profit remittances from gold averaged 5.23 million mil reis (£1.4 million) a year, of which the identifiable royal revenues were around 18 per cent. Total Brazilian gold shipments over the whole of the 18th century were between 800 and 850 tons.
, fled
to Rio de Janeiro
to escape the French invasion
of Portugal. He brought about 10,000 of the mainland establishment with him — the aristocracy, bureaucracy, and some of the military. For 13 years, Rio de Janeiro functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal in what some historians call a "metropolitan reversal"—i.e., a former colony exercising governance over the entirety of the Portuguese empire.
In 1815, during the Congress of Vienna
, John VI created the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, elevating Brazil to the same rank as Portugal and increasing the administrative independence of Brazil. Brazilian representatives were elected to the Portuguese Constitutional Courts. In 1816, with the death of Queen Maria
, John VI was crowned King of Portugal and Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
John VI
faced a political crisis
when groups in Portugal tried to reverse the metropolitanisation of their former colony. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars
came calls for John to return to Lisbon and for Brazil to return to its previous colonial condition. By late 1821 the situation was becoming unbearable and John VI and the royal family returned to Portugal.
The Portuguese Courts now demanded that Prince Pedro return to Portugal. As his father had advised him to do, the prince instead declared his intention to stay in Brazil in a speech known as the "Fico" ("I am staying"). When Pedro proclaimed Brazilian independence on September 7, 1822, and subsequently became the first emperor of the country, Brazil's progression from Portuguese colony to autonomous country was complete. There was some armed resistance from Portuguese garrisons in Brazil, but the struggle was brief. Portugal recognized Brazil's independence in 1825.
incident. Portugal had sent a naval force constituted by the warships Mindello and Affonso de Albuquerque to Rio de Janeiro to protect Portuguese interests during the naval
rebellion against President
Floriano Peixoto
. On 2 April 1894, the uprising was crushed and 493 rebels, including 70 officers and the mutiny
leader, Admiral Luís Filipe de Saldanha da Gama, sought refuge on board the Portuguese warships. Despite protests from the Brazilian government, Portugal granted refuge to the rebels and sailed to the Rio de la Plata
, where most of the refugees disembarked. The incident was regarded as a violation of Brazilian sovereignty and led Brazil to sever diplomatic relations with Portugal. Diplomatic relations were re-established in 1895 by the Prudente de Morais
administration.
. Portugal has lobbied for Brazil to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
. Brazil and Portugal are founding members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, an intergovernmental organization of former Portuguese colonies.
The two states also hold regular summit meetings
to discuss bilateral and multilateral agreements and current topics. A major issue on the bilateral agenda in cultural matters is the joint promotion and diffusion of the Portuguese language.
Relations between the two countries was said to be based on Brazil's sheer size, thus its economic market and generally more powerful economy. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brazilian investment in Portugal was thus much greater than Portuguese investment in Brazil.
In economic terms, Portugal’s direct investment
in Brazil has grown substantially, and there has also been steady growth in trade between the two nations.
and are parts of the Lusophone
world.
Portugal is sometime controversially called the "mother country" of Brazil." A statue of Pedro Alvares Cabral in Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo
alleges that "Brazilians owe everything to Portugal." Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822 was said to be one of the important reasons for Portugal's decline as a global leader.
The azulejos style of architecture prevalent in Brazil was derived from the era of Portuguese rule. Brazilian telenovelas were popular in Portugal. However, ethnic relations between the two was not strong and the "special relations" was said to have ended by the later 20th century, however, Portuguese citizens are still granted certain privileges under the Constitution that other foreigners do not have. A Portuguese community still exists in Brazil, as does a Brazilian community in Portugal. Portuguese is also said to have "united" Brazil where, in the 19th century, only segments of the country spoke the language with Indian languages such as Tupi
being prevalent. Following more speculators coming from Europe and African slaves, Portugese became a universal language in the country.
However, Portuguese links with Brazil were weaker than that of other European empires like the United Kingdom, whose colonies sent soldiers to fight in both World Wars. Cultural dissimalirites also exist because of the native and African influence, both of whom adopted Portuguese names but retained an element of their own culture and "indigenised" it to make a "uniquely" Brazilian culture as in dance and other facets. These were adopted by Brazil's white population, but was not present in Portugal.
The two countries have also given special attention to the promotion and diffusion of the Portuguese language in the world. Brazil and Portugal have signed several bilateral agreements with the purpose of creating a unified orthography
for the Portuguese language, to be used by all the countries that have Portuguese as their official language
. Since 21 April, 2000, Brazilian citizens can travel to Portugal (and vice versa) without a visa, on account of the "Status of Equality" treaty that was signed between the two states.
Diplomatic mission
Of Portugal
Of Brazil
São Vicente, São Paulo
São Vicente is a coastal city of southern São Paulo, Brazil. Its estimated population in 2006 was 329,370 inhabitants.It was the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas and the first capital of the Captaincy of São Vicente, now the state of São Paulo...
, the first Portuguese permanent settlement in the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, up to the present day. Relations between the two are intrinsically tied because of the Portuguese Empire
Portuguese Empire
The Portuguese Empire , also known as the Portuguese Overseas Empire or the Portuguese Colonial Empire , was the first global empire in history...
. They continue to be bound by a common language and ancestral lines in Portuguese Brazilians, which can be traced back hundreds of years.
Today, Brazil and Portugal share a privileged relationship, as evidenced in aligned political and diplomatic coordination, as well as economic, social, cultural, legal, technical and scientific cooperation.
Country comparison
 Brazil |
 Portugal |
|
|---|---|---|
| Population | 191,796,000 | 11,317,192 |
| Area | 8,514,877 km2 (3,287,597 sq mi) | 92,090 km2 (35,645 sq mi ) |
| Population Density | 22/km2 (57/sq mi) | 114/km2 (295/sq mi) |
| Capital | Brasília Brasília Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the... |
Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban... |
| Largest city | São Paulo São Paulo São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among... – 11,037,593 (19,889,559 Metro) |
Lisbon Lisbon Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban... – 564,657 (2,830,867 Metro) |
| Government | Federal Federalism Federalism is a political concept in which a group of members are bound together by covenant with a governing representative head. The term "federalism" is also used to describe a system of the government in which sovereignty is constitutionally divided between a central governing authority and... presidential Presidential system A presidential system is a system of government where an executive branch exists and presides separately from the legislature, to which it is not responsible and which cannot, in normal circumstances, dismiss it.... constitutional republic Constitutional republic A constitutional republic is a state in which the head of state and other officials are representatives of the people and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government's power over all of its citizens... |
Unitary Unitary state A unitary state is a state governed as one single unit in which the central government is supreme and any administrative divisions exercise only powers that their central government chooses to delegate... parliamentary Parliamentary republic A parliamentary republic or parliamentary constitutional republic is a type of republic which operates under a parliamentary system of government - meaning a system with no clear-cut separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches. There are a number of variations of... constitutional republic Constitutional republic A constitutional republic is a state in which the head of state and other officials are representatives of the people and must govern according to existing constitutional law that limits the government's power over all of its citizens... |
| Official languages | Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... |
Portuguese Portuguese language Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095... |
| Main religions | 74% Roman Catholicism, 15.4% Protestant, 7.4% non-Religious Irreligion Irreligion is defined as an absence of religion or an indifference towards religion. Sometimes it may also be defined more narrowly as hostility towards religion. When characterized as hostility to religion, it includes antitheism, anticlericalism and antireligion. When characterized as... , 1.7% Other, 1.3% Kardecist spiritism, 0.3% Afro-Brazilian religions |
84.5% Roman Catholicism, 15.5% Other |
| GDP (nominal) | US$1.612 trillion ($8,480 per capita Per capita Per capita is a Latin prepositional phrase: per and capita . The phrase thus means "by heads" or "for each head", i.e. per individual or per person... ) |
US$227.855 billion ($21,407 per capita) |
| Immigration | 500,000 Portuguese-born people live in Brazil | 106,961 Brazilian-born people live in Portugal |
| Military expenditures | US$27.1 billion (2009) | $4.9 billion (2009) |
Origins
In April 1500, Brazil was claimed by Portugal on the arrival of the Portuguese fleet commanded by Pedro Álvares CabralPedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro Álvares Cabral was a Portuguese noble, military commander, navigator and explorer regarded as the discoverer of Brazil. Cabral conducted the first substantial exploration of the northeast coast of South America and claimed it for Portugal. While details of Cabral's early life are sketchy, it...
. Until 1530 Portugal had very little interest in Brazil, mainly due to the high profits gained through commerce with India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
. Only in 1532 would the Portuguese establish their first colony in Brazil. In the first century of settlement, the Portuguese realized it would be difficult to use the natives
Indigenous peoples in Brazil
The Indigenous peoples in Brazil comprise a large number of distinct ethnic groups who inhabited the country prior to the European invasion around 1500...
as slave labor
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
. They were not docile, had high mortality when exposed to Western diseases, could run away and hide rather easily. So Portugal turned to imported African slaves
African slave trade
Systems of servitude and slavery were common in many parts of Africa, as they were in much of the ancient world. In some African societies, the enslaved people were also indentured servants and fully integrated; in others, they were treated much worse...
for manual labor.
In the 16th and 17th centuries official revenue from Brazil was small — about 3 per cent of Portuguese public revenue in 1588 and 5 per cent in 1619. The economic activity was concentrated on a small population of settlers engaged in a highly profitable export–oriented sugarcane
Sugarcane
Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...
industry in the Northeast
Northeast Region, Brazil
The Northeast Region of Brazil is composed of the following states: Maranhão, Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory....
.
In the 1690s, the discovery of gold
Brazil Gold Rush
The Brazil Gold Rush was a gold rush that started in the 1690s, in the then-Portuguese colony, now the nation of Brazil. The rush opened up the major gold-producing area of Ouro Preto , then the aptly named Vila Rica .The rush began when bandeirantes discovered large gold deposits in the mountains...
, and in the 1720s diamonds further south in Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais is one of the 26 states of Brazil, of which it is the second most populous, the third richest, and the fourth largest in area. Minas Gerais is the Brazilian state with the largest number of Presidents of Brazil, the current one, Dilma Rousseff, being one of them. The capital is the...
, opened new opportunities. The gold industry was at its peak around 1750, with production around 15 tons a year, but as the best deposits were exhausted, output and exports declined. In the first half of the 18th century profit remittances from gold averaged 5.23 million mil reis (£1.4 million) a year, of which the identifiable royal revenues were around 18 per cent. Total Brazilian gold shipments over the whole of the 18th century were between 800 and 850 tons.
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves
In 1808, the Portuguese ruler, Prince Regent John VIJohn VI of Portugal
John VI John VI John VI (full name: João Maria José Francisco Xavier de Paula Luís António Domingos Rafael; (13 May 1767 – 10 March 1826) was King of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves (later changed to just King of Portugal and the Algarves, after Brazil was recognized...
, fled
Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil
The Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Brazil was an episode in the history of Portugal and the history of Brazil in which the Portuguese royal family and its court escaped from Lisbon on November 29, 1807 to Brazil, just days before Napoleonic forces captured the city on December 1...
to Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
to escape the French invasion
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War was a war between France and the allied powers of Spain, the United Kingdom, and Portugal for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French and Spanish armies crossed Spain and invaded Portugal in 1807. Then, in 1808, France turned on its...
of Portugal. He brought about 10,000 of the mainland establishment with him — the aristocracy, bureaucracy, and some of the military. For 13 years, Rio de Janeiro functioned as the capital of the Kingdom of Portugal in what some historians call a "metropolitan reversal"—i.e., a former colony exercising governance over the entirety of the Portuguese empire.
In 1815, during the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
, John VI created the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves, elevating Brazil to the same rank as Portugal and increasing the administrative independence of Brazil. Brazilian representatives were elected to the Portuguese Constitutional Courts. In 1816, with the death of Queen Maria
Maria I of Portugal
Maria I was Queen regnant of Portugal and the Algarves from 1777 until her death. Known as Maria the Pious , or Maria the Mad , she was the first undisputed Queen regnant of Portugal...
, John VI was crowned King of Portugal and Brazil in Rio de Janeiro.
John VI
John VI
John VI may refer to:* Pope John VI, Pope from 701 to his death in 705* Ecumenical Patriarch John VI of Constantinople, Patriarch from 712 to 715* John VI of Naples, Duke from c. 1097 to c...
faced a political crisis
Liberal Revolution of 1820
The Liberal Revolution of 1820 was a political revolution that erupted in 1820 and lasted until 1826. It was unchained via a military insurrection in the city of Porto, in northern Portugal, that quickly and peacefully spread to the rest of the country. From 1807 to 1811 Napoleonic French forces...
when groups in Portugal tried to reverse the metropolitanisation of their former colony. With the end of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
came calls for John to return to Lisbon and for Brazil to return to its previous colonial condition. By late 1821 the situation was becoming unbearable and John VI and the royal family returned to Portugal.
Independence of Brazil
The Portuguese Courts now demanded that Prince Pedro return to Portugal. As his father had advised him to do, the prince instead declared his intention to stay in Brazil in a speech known as the "Fico" ("I am staying"). When Pedro proclaimed Brazilian independence on September 7, 1822, and subsequently became the first emperor of the country, Brazil's progression from Portuguese colony to autonomous country was complete. There was some armed resistance from Portuguese garrisons in Brazil, but the struggle was brief. Portugal recognized Brazil's independence in 1825.
Revolta da Armada incident
In 1894 relations were strained between the two states after Portugal granted refuge to Brazilian rebels after the Revolta da ArmadaRevolta da Armada
Brazilian Naval Revolts, or the Revoltas da Armada , were armed mutinies promoted mainly by Admirals Custodio de Mello and Saldanha da Gama and their fleet of Brazilian Navy ships against unconstitucional attitudes of the then the central government in Rio de Janeiro.-First revolt:In November 1891,...
incident. Portugal had sent a naval force constituted by the warships Mindello and Affonso de Albuquerque to Rio de Janeiro to protect Portuguese interests during the naval
Brazilian Navy
The Brazilian Navy is a branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces responsible for conducting naval operations. It is the largest navy in Latin America...
rebellion against President
President of Brazil
The president of Brazil is both the head of state and head of government of the Federative Republic of Brazil. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian Armed Forces...
Floriano Peixoto
Floriano Peixoto
Floriano Vieira de Araújo Peixoto , April 30, 1839, Maceió, Brazil — July 29, 1895, Rio de Janeiro; born in Ipioca , was a Brazilian soldier and politician, a veteran of the War of the Triple Alliance, and the second President of Brazil.-Election and Succession as President:Floriano Peixoto...
. On 2 April 1894, the uprising was crushed and 493 rebels, including 70 officers and the mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
leader, Admiral Luís Filipe de Saldanha da Gama, sought refuge on board the Portuguese warships. Despite protests from the Brazilian government, Portugal granted refuge to the rebels and sailed to the Rio de la Plata
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
, where most of the refugees disembarked. The incident was regarded as a violation of Brazilian sovereignty and led Brazil to sever diplomatic relations with Portugal. Diplomatic relations were re-established in 1895 by the Prudente de Morais
Prudente de Morais
Prudente José de Morais Barros was the third president of Brazil . His presidency lasted from November 15, 1894 until November 15, 1898...
administration.
20th century
In the 20th century, relations between the two countries were shaped by Brazil's much greater size and more powerful economy. For this reason, Brazilian investment in Portugal in the 1970s and 1980s was considerably greater than Portuguese investment in Brazil.Political ties
Brazil and Portugal cooperate in multilateral fora, and have been partners in promoting U.N. reformReform of the United Nations
Since the late 1990s there have been many calls for reform of the United Nations . However, there is little clarity or consensus about what reform might mean in practice. Both those who want the UN to play a greater role in world affairs and those who want its role confined to humanitarian work or...
. Portugal has lobbied for Brazil to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council
United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council is one of the principal organs of the United Nations and is charged with the maintenance of international peace and security. Its powers, outlined in the United Nations Charter, include the establishment of peacekeeping operations, the establishment of...
. Brazil and Portugal are founding members of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, an intergovernmental organization of former Portuguese colonies.
The two states also hold regular summit meetings
Summit (meeting)
A summit meeting is a meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security and a prearranged agenda.Notable summit meetings include those of Franklin D...
to discuss bilateral and multilateral agreements and current topics. A major issue on the bilateral agenda in cultural matters is the joint promotion and diffusion of the Portuguese language.
Economic ties
Both political and economic ties are important today. Companies from both countries were involved in mergers into the 2000s.Relations between the two countries was said to be based on Brazil's sheer size, thus its economic market and generally more powerful economy. In the 1970s and 1980s, Brazilian investment in Portugal was thus much greater than Portuguese investment in Brazil.
In economic terms, Portugal’s direct investment
Foreign direct investment
Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...
in Brazil has grown substantially, and there has also been steady growth in trade between the two nations.
Cultural relations
In addition to a commonality of language and religion, both countries are members of ACOLOPACOLOP
ACOLOP , is an Olympic-related non-profit organisation officially established on June 8, 2004, in Lisbon. It was founded by the national Olympic committees of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Macau , Mozambique, Portugal and São Tomé and Príncipe; it also includes Equatorial...
and are parts of the Lusophone
Lusophone
A Lusophone is someone who speaks the Portuguese language, either as a native, as an additional language, or as a learner. As an adjective, it means "Portuguese-speaking"...
world.
Portugal is sometime controversially called the "mother country" of Brazil." A statue of Pedro Alvares Cabral in Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo
São Paulo
São Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
alleges that "Brazilians owe everything to Portugal." Brazil's independence from Portugal in 1822 was said to be one of the important reasons for Portugal's decline as a global leader.
The azulejos style of architecture prevalent in Brazil was derived from the era of Portuguese rule. Brazilian telenovelas were popular in Portugal. However, ethnic relations between the two was not strong and the "special relations" was said to have ended by the later 20th century, however, Portuguese citizens are still granted certain privileges under the Constitution that other foreigners do not have. A Portuguese community still exists in Brazil, as does a Brazilian community in Portugal. Portuguese is also said to have "united" Brazil where, in the 19th century, only segments of the country spoke the language with Indian languages such as Tupi
Tupi
The Tupi people, Tupinambá, were one of the main ethnic groups of Brazilian indigenous people. Scholars believe they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, but 2,900 years ago they started to spread southward and gradually occupied the Atlantic coast....
being prevalent. Following more speculators coming from Europe and African slaves, Portugese became a universal language in the country.
However, Portuguese links with Brazil were weaker than that of other European empires like the United Kingdom, whose colonies sent soldiers to fight in both World Wars. Cultural dissimalirites also exist because of the native and African influence, both of whom adopted Portuguese names but retained an element of their own culture and "indigenised" it to make a "uniquely" Brazilian culture as in dance and other facets. These were adopted by Brazil's white population, but was not present in Portugal.
The two countries have also given special attention to the promotion and diffusion of the Portuguese language in the world. Brazil and Portugal have signed several bilateral agreements with the purpose of creating a unified orthography
Orthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
for the Portuguese language, to be used by all the countries that have Portuguese as their official language
Official language
An official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
. Since 21 April, 2000, Brazilian citizens can travel to Portugal (and vice versa) without a visa, on account of the "Status of Equality" treaty that was signed between the two states.
Diplomatic missionDiplomatic missionA diplomatic mission is a group of people from one state or an international inter-governmental organisation present in another state to represent the sending state/organisation in the receiving state...
s
Of Portugal
- BrasíliaBrasíliaBrasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
(Embassy) - BelémBelémBelém is a Brazilian city, the capital and largest city of state of Pará, in the country's north region. It is the entrance gate to the Amazon with a busy port, airport and bus/coach station...
(Consulate) - Belo HorizonteBelo HorizonteBelo Horizonte is the capital of and largest city in the state of Minas Gerais, located in the southeastern region of Brazil. It is the third largest metropolitan area in the country...
(Consulate) - CuritibaCuritibaCuritiba is the capital of the Brazilian state of Paraná. It is the largest city with the biggest economy of both Paraná and southern Brazil. The population of Curitiba numbers approximately 1.75 million people and the latest GDP figures for the city surpass US$61 billion according to...
(Consulate) - Porto AlegrePorto AlegrePorto Alegre is the tenth most populous municipality in Brazil, with 1,409,939 inhabitants, and the centre of Brazil's fourth largest metropolitan area . It is also the capital city of the southernmost Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city is the southernmost capital city of a Brazilian...
(Consulate) - RecifeRecifeRecife is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in Brazil with 4,136,506 inhabitants, the largest metropolitan area of the North/Northeast Regions, the 5th-largest metropolitan influence area in Brazil, and the capital and largest city of the state of Pernambuco. The population of the city proper...
(Consulate) - FortalezaFortalezaFortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...
(Consulate) - Rio de JaneiroRio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
(General) - São PauloSão PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil, the largest city in the southern hemisphere and South America, and the world's seventh largest city by population. The metropolis is anchor to the São Paulo metropolitan area, ranked as the second-most populous metropolitan area in the Americas and among...
(General) - SalvadorSalvador, BahiaSalvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...
(General)
Of Brazil
- LisbonLisbonLisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
(Embassy) - PortoPortoPorto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
(Consulate)
External links
- Embaixada do Brasil em Lisboa Official website of the Brazilian Embassy in Lisbon
- Embaixada de Portugal em Brasília Official website of the Portuguese Embassy in Brasília