Northeast Region, Brazil
Encyclopedia
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.
The Northeast Region has a population of 53.6 million people, which represents 28% of the total number in the whole country. Most of the population lives in urban areas and about 15 million people live in the sertão
. It is famous in Brazil for its hot weather, beautiful beaches, rich culture (unique folklore, music, cuisine, literature), Carnival and St. John's festivities, the sertão and being the birthplace of the country.
The biggest cities are Salvador
, Fortaleza
and Recife
, which are the regional metropolitan areas of the Northeast, all with a population above a million inhabitants and metropolitan areas above 3.5 million.
Salvador International Airport
, Recife International Airport
and Fortaleza International Airport
connects the Northeast region with many Brazilian cities and also operates some internationally scheduled and chartered flights. The Nordeste, according to Infraero
, has the second largest number of passengers (roughly 20%) in Brazil.
The Northeast is home to several universities, museums, theaters, churches, and historical landmarks of colonial Brazil
.
with many low hills and small ranges. The highest peaks are around 1850 metres (6,069.6 ft) in Bahia, while further north there are no peaks above 1123 metres (3,684.4 ft). On its northern and western side, the plateaus fall steadily to the coast and into the basin of the Tocantins River
in Maranhão, but on the eastern side it falls off quite sharply to the coast except in the valley of the São Francisco river. The steep slopes and long cliffs of the eastern coastline are known as "The Great Escarpment".
The escarpment serves an extremely important climatic function. Because for most of the year the Nordeste is out of reach of the Intertropical Convergence Zone
, the easterly trade winds blow across the region, giving abundant rainfall to the coast but producing clear, dry conditions inland where the escarpment blocks moisture flow. This gives rise to four distinct regions, the zona da mata
on the coast, the agreste
on the escarpment, sertão
beyond and the Mid north.
with species completely different from those found in the much larger Amazon rainforest
, known as the Mata Atlantica. Because of the fact that the climate was extremely suitable for the cultivation of sugar cane, however, very little of the forest remains today. For many years, sugar cane cultivation in this region was the mainstay of Brazil's economy, being superseded only when coffee
production developed in the late nineteenth century. The sugar cane is cultivated on large estates and the owners of these had and maintain tremendous political influence.
and because it is located on the steep escarpment, was not generally used whilst flatter land was abundant. Today, with irrigation water available, however, the agreste, as its name suggest, is a major farming region despite containing no major city, contains well developed medium large cities such as Caruaru
, Campina Grande
and Arapiraca
.
for their subsistence and need to walk long distances to obtain it. Many times these people, who are generally poor, give up and go to live in the big cities like São Paulo
, Recife
, Salvador
or Rio de Janeiro
. A well known case is that of the former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
, who lived in Caetés
, and moved early in childhood with the family to Santos
, where he worked in the streets in his teens. Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto
, who was born in Recife
, wrote poems such as Morte e Vida Severina, Cemitério Pernambucano, and A Educação Pela Pedra, that illustrate well the bleak living conditions of these arid
backlands.
and the semi arid region of sertão
(hot and drought). Covers the states of Maranhão
and half of Piaui
.
from the coastal rainforest (or mata atlântica) in exchange for spices. But as colonization and commercial interest intensified in the region the number of Indians became drastically reduced due to the constant battles with the owners of the large sugar mills. Conflicts arose because the settlers had displaced the native inhabitants and then tried to enslave them as labor in the fields. The Portuguese colonials then considered the idea of importing black African slaves to use as manual labor. To this day culture in Northeast Brazil remains fully permeated by this African influence.
The Northeast was the first area of discovery in Brazil, when roughly 1,500 Portuguese arrived on April 22, 1500, under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral
at Porto Seguro
, in the state of Bahia
.
The coast of the Northeast was the stage for the first economic activity of the country, namely the extraction and export of pau Brasil, or brazilwood
. Brazilwood was highly valued in Europe where it was used to make violin bows (especially the Pau de Pernambuco variety) and for the red dye it produced. Countries like France
, who disagreed with the Treaty of Tordesillas
, (a papal bull decreed by the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI
in 1493 which sought to divide the South American continent between the Spanish and the Portuguese), launched constant attacks against the coast with the objective of stealing the wood.
French colonists not only tried to settle in present-day Rio de Janeiro
, from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France Antarctique
episode), but also in present-day São Luís, from 1612 to 1614 (the so-called France Equinoxiale
). The Dutch
, also opposed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, plundered the Northeast coast, sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured Salvador. From 1630 to 1654 the Dutch set up more permanently in the Northeast and controlled a long stretch of coast that was most accessible to Europe
without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company
in Brazil were in a constant siege despite the presence in Recife
of the great John Maurice of Nassau as governor.
Slave resistance began during the colonial era, in the seventeenth century, and eventually led to the formation of quilombos, or settlements of runaway and free-born African slaves. The Quilombo dos Palmares, the largest and most well-known of these settlements, was founded around 1600 in the Serra da Barriga hills, in the present state of Alagoas
. Palmares, at the height of its power, was an independent, self-sustaining republic, hosting a population of over 30,000 free African men, women and children. There were over 200 buildings in the community, a church, four smithies, and a council house. Although Palmares
managed to defend itself from the Dutch military and the Portuguese colonials for several decades, it was finally taken and destroyed and its leader Zumbi dos Palmares
was captured and beheaded. His head was then displayed in a public plaza in Recife.
Besides being Brazil’s main sea port, Brazil's center of the African slave trade
, a center of the sugar industry, and the seat of the first Catholic bishop of Brazil (in 1552) the city of Salvador was also the first general seat of government in Brazil as it is strategically located in the center of the eastern coast of the country. The government in Salvador sought to centralize power in an effort to support the various captaincies, geographical subdivisions that preceded the present states of Brazil, which at this time were in a state of crisis. Salvador remained the colonial capital until 1763 when it was succeeded by Rio de Janeiro, the new economic power center of that era.
A recent autosomal DNA study (2011), with nearly 1000 samples from all over the country ("whites", "pardos" and "blacks"), found out a major European contribution, followed by a high African contribution and an important Native American component. The study showed that Brazilians from different regions are more homogenous than previously thought by some based on the census alone. "Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, a lot greater between Brazilian regions than within Brazilians region".
According to an autosomal DNA study from 2010, "a new portrayal of each ethnicity contribution to the DNA of Brazilians, obtained with samples from the five regions of the country, has indicated that, on average, European ancestors are responsible for nearly 80% of the genetic heritage of the population. The variation between the regions is small, with the possible exception of the South, where the European contribution reaches nearly 90%. The results, published by the scientific magazine 'American Journal of Human Biology' by a team of the Catholic University of Brasília, show that, in Brazil, physical indicators such as skin colour, colour of the eyes and colour of the hair have little to do with the genetic ancestry of each person, which has been shown in previous studies"(regardless of census classification)". Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F(st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085). The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations."
An autosomal DNA study from 2009 found a similar profile "all the Brazilian samples (regions) lie more closely to the European group than to the African populations or to the Mestizos from Mexico".
According to another autosomal DNA study from 2008, by the University of Brasília (UnB), European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil (in all regions), accounting for 65.90% of heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24.80%) and the Native American (9.3%), the European ancestry being the dominant ancestry in all regions including the Northeast of Brazil.
Its economy is mainly based on the production of sugar
, cocoa and cotton
; as well as the extensive cattle breeding. Some time ago, at São Francisco River Valley (between States of Bahia
and Pernambuco
), fruit
s for export started being produced, too. At the seaside and the continental platform of the Region, the main activity is the exploitation of oil
, which is later processed in the State of Bahia
. Major industries (clothing, food, small machinery) are in the main metropolitan areas of the northeast.
Official reclamation activities have spurred the construction of numerous dam
s and hydroelectric projects, especially on the São Francisco River
. In the 1960s a successful extensive regional economic development program to address social unrest and countereffect its harsh and picturesque history, peopled by leather-garbed cowboys, bandits (cangaceiros), and religious fanatics. Development of tourism is a concerted, ongoing effort. The São Francisco River
is responsible for the regional production of energy
and it also bathes the states of Bahia
, Sergipe
, Alagoas
and Pernambuco
. The Northeast is rich in natural beauties with its beach
es of clear, warm water. Beyond tourism
, the Northeast also develops its industrial sector. Every day, important investors from many countries come to this region to search for new opportunities. The governments try to motivate the inflow of new investment money, based on the needs of its states.
2007, The Nordeste has the 3rd largest livestock portfolio in Brazil
, with approximately 16% of the total livestock output.
~ means dozens of thousands
As demonstrated on the above table, the Northeast region is a larger producer of goats, sheeps, donkeys, mules, horses and has a reasonable production in pigs, honey, cattle and eggs. That is due mainly to the fact that a large portion of the area is located in Poligono das Secas, which means drought poligonal area or knows popularly as sertão
and/or agreste
. Those areas comprise roughly 66% ( or 81% if discounted the Maranhão state )of all northeast and its characterized to have semi dessertic weather/characteristics such as: hot and dry temperatures, drought, lack and scant rainfall, eroded soil and high evapotranspiration
. Even so, those farmers (in many cases subsistence farmers) are increasing their output by turning to more resistant species like as goats and sheeps (very appreciated in the local culinary), and more workable animals as horses, donkeys and mules to replace and help them to do the machinery
tasks, if they do have none.
is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English
and Spanish
are part of the official high school
curriculum.
Tourism
has grown significantly in the Region in the last decades, showing the high potential of each State.
Besides the capitals, most coastal cities of the Northeast Region have many natural beauties, such as the Abrolhos Marine National Park
, Itacaré
, Comandatuba Island, Costa do Sauípe, Canasvieiras
and Porto Seguro
, in the State of Bahia; the Marine National Park of Fernando de Noronha
, Porto de Galinhas
beach in the State of Pernambuco
; tropical paradises, such as Canoa Quebrada
and Jericoacoara, on the coast of Ceará
, as well as the places to practice free flight, as Quixadá
and Sobral
; and Lençóis Maranhenses, embellishing the coast of Maranhão
State, among many others. In the interior area, National Parks of Serra da Capivara
and Sete Cidades
, both in the State of Piauí
; João Pessoa
, in the State of Paraíba
; Chapada Diamantina
, in the State of Bahia; and many other attractions.
The economy is based on tourism (in coastal or historical cities) or agriculture. The tourist industry is based largely on the beaches, which attract thousands of tourists per year, not only from other regions of Brazil but also many from Europe
(especially Italy
, Portugal
, Germany
, France
, United Kingdom
and Spain
), the United States
, and Australia
.
, Pernambuco
, which lies immediately north of the São Francisco River
(one of the few rivers that crosses the sertão
and does not dry in the arid periods of time which can be quite long). Another example is the city of Teresina
in the state of Piauí
, a city notorious for its sweltering heat.
Good rural areas are scarce and generally they are all near the coast, or in the west of Maranhão, and are mainly used for exportation products. In the semi-arid areas of the Northeast Region, rural areas do exist, but rain is scarce in the region; rural areas in the interior are generally based on subsistence agriculture. Fazendas (large farms) are common in the interior, where cattle-rasing and the cultivation of tropical fruit is often practiced. Also, in the areas where water is scarce local politicians often use the promise of irrigation projects as a bargaining chip to win elections.
Nordeste has a rich culture, with its unique constructions in the old centers of Salvador
, Recife
and Olinda
, dance (frevo
and maracatu
), music (axé
and forró
) and unique cuisine. Dishes particular to the region include carne de sol, farofa
, acarajé
, vatapá
, paçoca
, canjica
, pamonha
, moqueca capixaba, quibebe
, bolo de fubá cozido, sururu de capote and many others. Salvador was the first Brazilian capital.
The festival of São João
(Saint John), one of the festas juninas, is especially popular in the Northeast, particularly in Caruaru
, in the state of Pernambuco
and Campina Grande
, in the state of Paraíba
. The festival takes place once a year, in June. As the Northeast is mostly arid or semi-arid the Nordestinos give thanks to Saint John for the rainfall that typical falls this time of year, which greatly helps the farmers with their crops. And because this time of year also coincides with the corn harvest many regional dishes containing corn, such as canjica, pamonha, and milho verde, have become part of the cultural tradition.
The Bumba-Meu-Boi
festival is also popular, especially in the state of Maranhão
. During the Bumba-Meu-Bói festival in the city of São Luis do Maranhão and its environs there are many different groups, with elaborate costumes and different styles of music, which are called sotaques: sotaque de orquestra, as the names implies, uses an orchestra of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, banjos, drums, etc.; sotaque de zabumba employs primarily very large drums; and sotaque de matraca, a percussion instrument made of two pieces of wood that you carry in your hands and hit against each other. Some matracas are very large and are carried around the neck.
Many major cities in the Northeast also hold an off-season carnaval
(or "micareta"), such as the Carnatal
in Natal
or the Fortal in Fortaleza
. Since its inception in 1991, Carnatal has become the largest off-season carnaval in Brazil. The event takes place once a year, in December, and draws roughly one million participants. The Fortal takes place once every year as well but in the month of July. Held in a stadium called Cidade Fortal, the Fortal is considered the largest indoor off-season carnaval in Brazil.
Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport
is located in an area of more than 6 million square meters between sand dunes and native vegetation. The road route to the airport has already become one of the city’s main scenic attractions. The airport’s use has been growing at an average of 14% a year and now is responsible for more than 30% of passenger movement in Brazil’s Northeast. Nearly 35 thousand people circulate daily through the passenger terminal. The airport generates more than 16 thousand direct and indirect jobs, to serve a daily average of over 10 thousand passengers, 250 takeoffs and landings of 100 domestic and 16 international flights.
In addition to domestic and regional services, the airport has non-stop flights to Lisbon
, Madrid
, Frankfurt
, Montevideo
, Santiago
, Buenos Aires
, Asunción
and Miami
. Its IATA airport code
is SSA and it is the sixth busiest airport in the country, the first in northeastern Brazil, behind Congonhas International
, Guarulhos International
, Juscelino Kubitschek International, Santos Dumont Regional
and Galeão International
.
Guararapes International Airport
.
The new Recife/Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre
International Airport has been open since July 2004 and has 52 thousand square meters of area.
The largest airport in the North and Northeast regions, Guararapes had its capacity expanded from 1.5 million to 5 million passengers a year. There are currently 64 check-in counters, versus the former terminal’s 24.
The shopping and leisure area was also totally remodeled, within the “Aeroshopping” concept, which transforms an airport into a center for business, comfort and high-quality products and services. The commercial spaces will be occupied in steps and the final total will be 142 shops.
Since 2000, Recife has had the longest runway in the Northeast, at 3,305 meters. Its extension permits operations with jumbo jets, such as the Boeing 747-400
, which can carry 290 passengers and 62 tons of cargo, with endurance to fly nonstop to anywhere in South and Central America
, Africa
and parts of Europe
, the United States
and Canada
. Current domestic destinations include most major cities in Brazil
, and there are also international flights to Paris
, France
, Lisbon
, Portugal
and Buenos Aires
, Argentina
.
The Pinto Martins International Airport
is situated in Fortaleza. The passenger terminal is air conditioned and has four levels. The basement level has parking for 1,000 cars as well as automatic teller machines and a stop for regular city buses.
The ground level has 31 check-in counters, airline offices, car rental agencies, special tourist information, a juvenile court bureau to facilitate travel of minors, a National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) office, information counter, passenger arrival area and access to two taxi stops.
The second level contains shops, a food court
and domestic and international boarding lounges. The top floor has a beer garden and panoramic deck overlooking the maneuvering apron with a view of the Fortaleza skyline
. The apron is 152,857 square meters and can accommodate 14 aircraft at once in pre-established positions (“boxes”).
The scheduled airlines operating out of Fortaleza are Cabo Verde Airlines (code-sharing with TAP), TAM, Varig, TAP, Delta Air Lines, Alitalia, Livingston and TUI Airlines. The airport also frequently receives domestic and international flights, some of them charters. The passenger terminal, opened in 1998, was designed to have a useful life of 50 years. The former terminal, called the General Aviation Terminal, is now used for general aviation and the fire brigade. The control tower
is located alongside.
Construction of a cargo terminal is the next big step planned by Infraero
. The new terminal will have roughly eight thousand square meters, boosting the cargo storage and handling capacity fourfold. Plans then call for the new terminal to be integrated with highway and railroad links.
Maranhão
Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...
, Piauí
Piauí
Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...
, Ceará
Ceará
Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...
, Rio Grande do Norte
Rio Grande do Norte
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 geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal...
, Paraíba
Paraíba
Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...
, Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
, Alagoas
Alagoas
Alagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti...
, Sergipe
Sergipe
Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
and Bahia
Bahia
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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, and it represents 18.26% of the Brazilian territory.
The Northeast Region has a population of 53.6 million people, which represents 28% of the total number in the whole country. Most of the population lives in urban areas and about 15 million people live in the sertão
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. 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...
. It is famous in Brazil for its hot weather, beautiful beaches, rich culture (unique folklore, music, cuisine, literature), Carnival and St. John's festivities, the sertão and being the birthplace of the country.
The biggest cities are Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador 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...
, Fortaleza
Fortaleza
Fortaleza 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...
and Recife
Recife
Recife 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...
, which are the regional metropolitan areas of the Northeast, all with a population above a million inhabitants and metropolitan areas above 3.5 million.
Salvador International Airport
Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport
Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport , formerly called Dois de Julho International Airport is the airport serving Salvador da Bahia, Brazil...
, Recife International Airport
Guararapes International Airport
Recife/Guararapes-Gilberto Freyre International Airport is the airport serving Recife, Brazil. The name Guararapes is a reference to the Guararapes Battle, fought in the surrounding area...
and Fortaleza International Airport
Pinto Martins International Airport
Pinto Martins International Airport is the airport serving Fortaleza, Brazil. It is named after Euclides Pinto Martins a Ceará-born aviator, who in 1922 was one of the pioneers of the air-link between New York and Rio de Janeiro....
connects the Northeast region with many Brazilian cities and also operates some internationally scheduled and chartered flights. The Nordeste, according to Infraero
Infraero
Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária, Infraero in short, is a Brazilian government corporation created in 1972 and responsible for operating the main Brazilian commercial airports. In 2009, Infraero's airports carried 128,135,616 passengers and 1,114,754 tons of cargo and operated...
, has the second largest number of passengers (roughly 20%) in Brazil.
The Northeast is home to several universities, museums, theaters, churches, and historical landmarks of colonial Brazil
Colonial Brazil
In the history of Brazil, Colonial Brazil, officially the Viceroyalty of Brazil comprises the period from 1500, with the arrival of the Portuguese, until 1815, when Brazil was elevated to kingdom alongside Portugal as the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves.During the over 300 years...
.
Geography and climate
Geographically, the Northeast consists chiefly of an eroded continental cratonCraton
A craton is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere. Having often survived cycles of merging and rifting of continents, cratons are generally found in the interiors of tectonic plates. They are characteristically composed of ancient crystalline basement rock, which may be covered by...
with many low hills and small ranges. The highest peaks are around 1850 metres (6,069.6 ft) in Bahia, while further north there are no peaks above 1123 metres (3,684.4 ft). On its northern and western side, the plateaus fall steadily to the coast and into the basin of the Tocantins River
Tocantins River
The Tocantins is a river in Brazil, the central fluvial artery of the country. In the Tupi language, its name means "toucan's beak" . It runs from south to north for about 2,640 km. It is not really a branch of the Amazon River, although usually so considered, since its waters flow into the...
in Maranhão, but on the eastern side it falls off quite sharply to the coast except in the valley of the São Francisco river. The steep slopes and long cliffs of the eastern coastline are known as "The Great Escarpment".
The escarpment serves an extremely important climatic function. Because for most of the year the Nordeste is out of reach of the Intertropical Convergence Zone
Intertropical Convergence Zone
The Intertropical Convergence Zone , known by sailors as The Doldrums, is the area encircling the earth near the equator where winds originating in the northern and southern hemispheres come together....
, the easterly trade winds blow across the region, giving abundant rainfall to the coast but producing clear, dry conditions inland where the escarpment blocks moisture flow. This gives rise to four distinct regions, the zona da mata
Zona da Mata (coastal)
The Zona da Mata is the narrow coastal plain between the Atlantic Ocean and the dry agreste and sertão regions in the northeastern Brazilian states of Maranhão, Piauí, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia....
on the coast, the agreste
Agreste
In Brazil, the agreste is a narrow zone in the states of Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão...
on the escarpment, sertão
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. 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...
beyond and the Mid north.
nordeste da mata(Atlantic Rainforest zone)
On the humid eastern littoral, before European settlement was a long thin area of tropical rainforestTropical rainforest
A tropical rainforest is an ecosystem type that occurs roughly within the latitudes 28 degrees north or south of the equator . This ecosystem experiences high average temperatures and a significant amount of rainfall...
with species completely different from those found in the much larger Amazon rainforest
Amazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
, known as the Mata Atlantica. Because of the fact that the climate was extremely suitable for the cultivation of sugar cane, however, very little of the forest remains today. For many years, sugar cane cultivation in this region was the mainstay of Brazil's economy, being superseded only when coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
production developed in the late nineteenth century. The sugar cane is cultivated on large estates and the owners of these had and maintain tremendous political influence.
Agreste
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 support tropical rainforest, especially since the rainfall is extremely erratic from year to year. This transitional zone is known as the agresteAgreste
In Brazil, the agreste is a narrow zone in the states of Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão...
and because it is located on the steep escarpment, was not generally used whilst flatter land was abundant. Today, with irrigation water available, however, the agreste, as its name suggest, is a major farming region despite containing no major city, contains well developed medium large cities such as Caruaru
Caruaru
Caruaru is a Brazilian city in the Pernambuco state. The most populous city in the interior of the state, it's located in the zone named Agreste and because of its cultural importance, it's known by its people as the Capital do Agreste and Princesinha do Agreste.130 kilometers from...
, Campina Grande
Campina Grande
Campina Grande is the second most populous Brazilian city in the State of Paraíba after João Pessoa, the capital. It is considered to be the most important city of the Northeastern Brazilian subregion called agreste. It is considered one of the main industrial, technological and educational...
and Arapiraca
Arapiraca
Arapiraca is a municipality located in the center of the Brazilian state of Alagoas. It was founded in 1924 and is 135,6 km from the state capital, Maceió. , it has a population of c. 214,000 inhabitants...
.
Sertão Nordestino (North-Eastern Backlands)
People who live in these arid areas generally do not have enough waterWater
Water is a chemical substance with the chemical formula H2O. A water molecule contains one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms connected by covalent bonds. Water is a liquid at ambient conditions, but it often co-exists on Earth with its solid state, ice, and gaseous state . Water also exists in a...
for their subsistence and need to walk long distances to obtain it. Many times these people, who are generally poor, give up and go to live in the big cities like 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...
, Recife
Recife
Recife 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...
, Salvador
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador 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...
or 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...
. A well known case is that of the former Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
, who lived in Caetés
Caetés, Pernambuco
Caetés is a Brazilian small city located within the state of Pernambuco, in northeastern Brazil. The city belongs to the mesoregion of Agreste Pernambucano and microregion of Garanhuns. It is the birthplace of former president of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva...
, and moved early in childhood with the family to Santos
Santos (São Paulo)
-Sister cities: Shimonoseki, Japan Nagasaki, Japan Funchal, Portugal Trieste, Italy Coimbra, Portugal Ansião, Portugal Arouca, Portugal Ushuaia, Argentina Havana, Cuba Taizhou. China Ningbo. China Constanţa, Romania Ulsan, South Korea Colón, Panama* Cadiz, Spain...
, where he worked in the streets in his teens. Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto
João Cabral de Melo Neto
João Cabral de Melo Neto was born in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, and is considered one of the greatest Brazilian poets of all time.He is often quoted saying "I try not to perfume the flower"...
, who was born in Recife
Recife
Recife 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...
, wrote poems such as Morte e Vida Severina, Cemitério Pernambucano, and A Educação Pela Pedra, that illustrate well the bleak living conditions of these arid
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. 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...
backlands.
Meio Norte Nordestino (Northeast Mid North)
It is a transition area between the high rainfalls region of amazonasAmazon Rainforest
The Amazon Rainforest , also known in English as Amazonia or the Amazon Jungle, is a moist broadleaf forest that covers most of the Amazon Basin of South America...
and the semi arid region of sertão
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. 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...
(hot and drought). Covers the states of Maranhão
Maranhão
Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...
and half of Piaui
Piauí
Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...
.
History
The Northeast was primarily inhabited by indigenous peoples, mostly speaking languages of the Tupi–Guarani family, who, before the colonial era, helped Europeans with the extraction of brazilwoodBrazilwood
Caesalpinia echinata is a species of Brazilian timber tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. Common names include Brazilwood, Pau-Brasil, Pau de Pernambuco and Ibirapitanga . This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for...
from the coastal rainforest (or mata atlântica) in exchange for spices. But as colonization and commercial interest intensified in the region the number of Indians became drastically reduced due to the constant battles with the owners of the large sugar mills. Conflicts arose because the settlers had displaced the native inhabitants and then tried to enslave them as labor in the fields. The Portuguese colonials then considered the idea of importing black African slaves to use as manual labor. To this day culture in Northeast Brazil remains fully permeated by this African influence.
The Northeast was the first area of discovery in Brazil, when roughly 1,500 Portuguese arrived on April 22, 1500, under the command of Pedro Álvares Cabral
Pedro 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...
at Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is the site where the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on Brazilian soil on April 22, 1500...
, in the state of Bahia
Bahia
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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
.
Brazilwood
Caesalpinia echinata is a species of Brazilian timber tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. Common names include Brazilwood, Pau-Brasil, Pau de Pernambuco and Ibirapitanga . This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for...
. Brazilwood was highly valued in Europe where it was used to make violin bows (especially the Pau de Pernambuco variety) and for the red dye it produced. Countries like France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, who disagreed with the Treaty of Tordesillas
Treaty of Tordesillas
The Treaty of Tordesillas , signed at Tordesillas , , divided the newly discovered lands outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a meridian 370 leagueswest of the Cape Verde islands...
, (a papal bull decreed by the Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI
Pope Alexander VI , born Roderic Llançol i Borja was Pope from 1492 until his death on 18 August 1503. He is one of the most controversial of the Renaissance popes, and his Italianized surname—Borgia—became a byword for the debased standards of the Papacy of that era, most notoriously the Banquet...
in 1493 which sought to divide the South American continent between the Spanish and the Portuguese), launched constant attacks against the coast with the objective of stealing the wood.
French colonists not only tried to settle in present-day 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...
, from 1555 to 1567 (the so-called France Antarctique
France Antarctique
France Antarctique was a French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio...
episode), but also in present-day São Luís, from 1612 to 1614 (the so-called France Equinoxiale
France Équinoxiale
Equinoctial France was the contemporary name given to the colonization efforts of France in the 17th century in South America, around the line of Equator, before "tropical" had fully gained its modern meaning: Equinoctial means in Latin "of equal nights", i.e., on the Equator, where the duration of...
). The Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, also opposed to the Treaty of Tordesillas, plundered the Northeast coast, sacked Bahia in 1604, and even temporarily captured Salvador. From 1630 to 1654 the Dutch set up more permanently in the Northeast and controlled a long stretch of coast that was most accessible to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
without, however, penetrating the interior. But the colonists of the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
in Brazil were in a constant siege despite the presence in Recife
Recife
Recife 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...
of the great John Maurice of Nassau as governor.
Alagoas
Alagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti...
. Palmares, at the height of its power, was an independent, self-sustaining republic, hosting a population of over 30,000 free African men, women and children. There were over 200 buildings in the community, a church, four smithies, and a council house. Although Palmares
Palmares
Palmares may refer to:*Palmares, Pernambuco, a municipality in the state of Pernambuco in Brazil*Palmares Paulista*Palmares Canton, a canton in the province of Alajuela in Costa Rica...
managed to defend itself from the Dutch military and the Portuguese colonials for several decades, it was finally taken and destroyed and its leader Zumbi dos Palmares
Zumbi
Zumbi , also known as Zumbi dos Palmares, was the last of the leaders of the Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil.-Quilombos:...
was captured and beheaded. His head was then displayed in a public plaza in Recife.
Besides being Brazil’s main sea port, Brazil's center of the African slave trade
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...
, a center of the sugar industry, and the seat of the first Catholic bishop of Brazil (in 1552) the city of Salvador was also the first general seat of government in Brazil as it is strategically located in the center of the eastern coast of the country. The government in Salvador sought to centralize power in an effort to support the various captaincies, geographical subdivisions that preceded the present states of Brazil, which at this time were in a state of crisis. Salvador remained the colonial capital until 1763 when it was succeeded by Rio de Janeiro, the new economic power center of that era.
Demographics
| City | Population (2009) |
|---|---|
| Salvador Salvador, Bahia Salvador 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... |
2,998,056 |
| Fortaleza Fortaleza Fortaleza 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... |
2,505,552 |
| Recife Recife Recife 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... |
1,561,659 |
| São Luís | 997,098 |
| Maceió Maceió Maceió is the capital and the largest city of the coastal state Alagoas, Brazil. The name "maceió" is of Indian origin, and designates the natural spontaneously courses of water which flow out of the soil... |
936,314 |
| Natal | 806,203 |
| Teresina Teresina Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. It is located in North-central Piauí 366 km from the coast.It is therefore, the only capital in the Northeast that is not located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. With 814 439 inhabitants, it is the 19th... |
802,537 |
| João Pessoa João Pessoa João Pessoa , is the capital city of the state of Paraíba, was founded in 1585 and sometimes called the city where the sun rises first, is a Brazilian city and the easternmost city in the Americas at 34º47'38"W, 7º9'28"S. Local residents call its easternmost point Ponta do Seixas. It is also... |
702,235 |
| Jaboatão Jaboatão dos Guararapes Jaboatão dos Guararapes is a city in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. It is a part of the Recife metro area. The population was 687,688 according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics in 2009, making it the second most-populous city in the state of Pernambuco and the 26th in... |
687,688 |
| Feira de Santana Feira de Santana Feira de Santana is a city in Bahia, Brazil. It is the second-most populous city in the state, with a population of 700,000 according to IBGE's estimate. It is located 115 km northwest of Salvador, Bahia's capital city. These cities are connected by BR-324, a four-lane divided highway... |
591,707 |
| Aracaju Aracaju -Vegetation:Aracaju lies in tropical forest. Rainforests are characterized by high rainfall, with minimum normal annual rainfall between 2,000 mm and 1,700 mm... |
544,039 |
The ethnic composition of the Northeast of Brazil compared to other regions
The composition of the Northeast of Brazil compared to other regions of Brazil according to autosomal genetic studies focused on the Brazilian population (which is a whole has been found to be a complex melting pot of European, African and Native Americans components):A recent autosomal DNA study (2011), with nearly 1000 samples from all over the country ("whites", "pardos" and "blacks"), found out a major European contribution, followed by a high African contribution and an important Native American component. The study showed that Brazilians from different regions are more homogenous than previously thought by some based on the census alone. "Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, a lot greater between Brazilian regions than within Brazilians region".
| Región | European | African | Native American |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Brazil | 68.80% | 10.50% | 18.50% |
| Northeast of Brazil | 60.10% | 29.30% | 8.90% |
| Southeast Brazil | 74.20% | 17.30% | 7.30% |
| Southern Brazil | 79.50% | 10.30% | 9.40% |
According to an autosomal DNA study from 2010, "a new portrayal of each ethnicity contribution to the DNA of Brazilians, obtained with samples from the five regions of the country, has indicated that, on average, European ancestors are responsible for nearly 80% of the genetic heritage of the population. The variation between the regions is small, with the possible exception of the South, where the European contribution reaches nearly 90%. The results, published by the scientific magazine 'American Journal of Human Biology' by a team of the Catholic University of Brasília, show that, in Brazil, physical indicators such as skin colour, colour of the eyes and colour of the hair have little to do with the genetic ancestry of each person, which has been shown in previous studies"(regardless of census classification)". Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F(st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085). The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations."
| Region | European | African | Native American |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Brazil | 71.10% | 18.20% | 10.70% |
| Northeast of Brazil | 77.40% | 13.60% | 8.90% |
| Central-West Brazil | 65.90% | 18.70% | 11.80% |
| Southeast Region, Brazil Southeast Region, Brazil The Southeast Region of Brazil is composed by the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for approximately 60% of the Brazilian GDP. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are three richest states of Brazil,... |
79.90% | 14.10% | 6.10% |
| Southern Brazil | 87.70% | 7.70% | 5.20% |
An autosomal DNA study from 2009 found a similar profile "all the Brazilian samples (regions) lie more closely to the European group than to the African populations or to the Mestizos from Mexico".
| Region | European | African | Native American |
|---|---|---|---|
| Northern Brazil | 60.6% | 21.3% | 18.1% |
| Northeast of Brazil | 66.7% | 23.3% | 10.0% |
| Central-West Brazil | 66.3% | 21.7% | 12.0% |
| Southeast Region, Brazil Southeast Region, Brazil The Southeast Region of Brazil is composed by the states of Espírito Santo, Minas Gerais, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. It is the richest region of the country, responsible for approximately 60% of the Brazilian GDP. São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais are three richest states of Brazil,... |
60.7% | 32.0% | 7.3% |
| Southern Brazil | 81.5% | 9.3% | 9.2% |
According to another autosomal DNA study from 2008, by the University of Brasília (UnB), European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil (in all regions), accounting for 65.90% of heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24.80%) and the Native American (9.3%), the European ancestry being the dominant ancestry in all regions including the Northeast of Brazil.
Northeast Region Sub-Divisions
| State | Symbol | Area Area Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat... km2 |
Municipalities Municipality A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district... |
Mesoregions Mesoregion (Brazil) Mesoregions are subdivisions of Brazilian states, grouping together various municipalities in proximity and with common characteristics. They were created by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics for statistical purposes and do not, therefore, constitute an administrative area.... |
Microregions Microregion (Brazil) Microregions are legally defined administrative areas in Brazil consisting of groups of municipalities bordering urban areas. Microregions are grouped together into mesoregions.... |
Population Population A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals... 2009 IBGE IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics or IBGE , is the agency responsible for statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil... |
HDI Human Development Index The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries... 2005 |
GDP (R$x1000) 2007 IBGE IBGE The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics or IBGE , is the agency responsible for statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil... |
GDP per capita2007 (R$) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alagoas Alagoas Alagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti... |
AL | 27,767,661 | 102 | 3 | 13 | 3,156,108 | 0.677 | 17,793,227 | 5.858 |
| Bahia Bahia 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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size... |
BA | 564,692,669 | 417 | 7 | 32 | 14,637,364 | 0.742 | 109,651,844 | 7.787 |
| Ceará Ceará Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of... |
CE | 148,825,602 | 184 | 7 | 33 | 8,547,809 | 0.723 | 50,331,383 | 6.149 |
| Maranhão Maranhão Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent... |
MA | 331,983,293 | 217 | 5 | 21 | 6,367,138 | 0.683 | 31,606,026 | 5.165 |
| Paraiba Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east... |
PB | 56,439,838 | 223 | 4 | 23 | 3,769,977 | 0.718 | 22,201,750 | 6.097 |
| Pernambuco Pernambuco Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the... |
PE | 98,311,616 | 185 | 5 | 18 | 8,810,256 | 0.718 | 62,255,687 | 7.337 |
| Piaui Piauí Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland... |
PI | 251,529,186 | 223 | 4 | 15 | 3,145,325 | 0.703 | 14,135,870 | 4.662 |
| Rio Grande do Norte Rio Grande do Norte 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 geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal... |
RN | 52,796,791 | 167 | 4 | 19 | 3,137,541 | 0.738 | 22,925,563 | 7.607 |
| Sergipe Sergipe Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean... |
SE | 21,910,348 | 75 | 3 | 13 | 2,019,679 | 0.742 | 16,895,691 | 8.712 |
| Northeast | NE | 1,558,196,000 | 1,793 | 42 | 187 | 53,591,197 | 0.720 | 347,797,041 | 6.749 |
Economy
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
, cocoa and cotton
Cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....
; as well as the extensive cattle breeding. Some time ago, at São Francisco River Valley (between States of Bahia
Bahia
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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
and Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
), fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
s for export started being produced, too. At the seaside and the continental platform of the Region, the main activity is the exploitation of oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
, which is later processed in the State of Bahia
Bahia
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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
. Major industries (clothing, food, small machinery) are in the main metropolitan areas of the northeast.
Official reclamation activities have spurred the construction of numerous dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
s and hydroelectric projects, especially on the São Francisco River
São Francisco River
The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...
. In the 1960s a successful extensive regional economic development program to address social unrest and countereffect its harsh and picturesque history, peopled by leather-garbed cowboys, bandits (cangaceiros), and religious fanatics. Development of tourism is a concerted, ongoing effort. The São Francisco River
São Francisco River
The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...
is responsible for the regional production of energy
Energy
In physics, energy is an indirectly observed quantity. It is often understood as the ability a physical system has to do work on other physical systems...
and it also bathes the states of Bahia
Bahia
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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...
, Sergipe
Sergipe
Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...
, Alagoas
Alagoas
Alagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti...
and Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
. The Northeast is rich in natural beauties with its beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
es of clear, warm water. Beyond tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, the Northeast also develops its industrial sector. Every day, important investors from many countries come to this region to search for new opportunities. The governments try to motivate the inflow of new investment money, based on the needs of its states.
Northeast livestock
According with IBGEIBGE
The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics or IBGE , is the agency responsible for statistical, geographic, cartographic, geodetic and environmental information in Brazil...
2007, The Nordeste has the 3rd largest livestock portfolio in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, with approximately 16% of the total livestock output.
- Livestock Table 2007
Animal AnimalAnimals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...Bahia BahiaBahia 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 fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...Pernambuco PernambucoPernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...Ceará CearáCeará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...Maranhão MaranhãoMaranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...Rio G do Norte Rio Grande do NorteRio 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 geographic position, Rio Grande do Norte has a strategic importance. The capital and largest city is Natal...Sergipe SergipeSergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...Paraiba ParaíbaParaíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...Alagoas AlagoasAlagoas is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil and is situated in the eastern part of the Northeast Region. It borders: Pernambuco ; Sergipe ; Bahia ; and the Atlantic Ocean . It occupies an area of 27,767 km², being slightly larger than Haiti...Piaui PiauíPiauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...Northeast Total BR BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
Ranking & %Goats 3187839 1595069 976880 379054 401510 17972 636457 67549 1371392 8633722 1st - 91.36% Sheep 3096155 1256270 1998165 226216 514224 147102 409634 201273 1437219 9286258 1st - 57.19% Cattle CattleCattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...11385722 2219892 2424290 6609438 1010238 1073692 1139322 1112125 1736520 28711240 4th - 14.38% Milk MilkMilk is a white liquid produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals before they are able to digest other types of food. Early-lactation milk contains colostrum, which carries the mother's antibodies to the baby and can reduce the risk of many...
x1000litLitér- External links :*...965799 662078 416453 335744 214044 251624 170396 242740 76409 3335286 4th - 12.77% Pigs PIGSPIGS is a four letter acronym that can stand for:* PIGS , Phosphatidylinositol glycan anchor biosynthesis, class S, a human gene* PIGS , the economies of Portugal, Italy , Greece and Spain...1904699 495957 1132673 1485351 182598 97524 143824 144652 1159355 6747013 2nd - 18.77% Chickens +family 29110700 31916818 24063274 11447837 4817525 6230077 8412925 5714782 10017084 131731022 3rd - 11.69% Chickens eggs Egg (food)Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
~75216 142518 109464 14771 28729 22577 27480 28955 16721 466432 ~ 3rd - 15.73% Quails 318585 605371 82813 20903 51741 19235 148656 122297 30600 1400201 2nd - 18.46% Quails eggs Egg (food)Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
~3788 9390 826 332 838 123 1536 1044 379 18257 ~ 2nd - 13.94% Horses 621122 125976 141370 174320 42933 68503 49761 56962 149561 1430408 2nd - 25.53% Donkeys 308904 100944 201079 118577 57955 11445 49528 10704 203876 1063012 1st - 91.39% Mule MuleA mule is the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse. Horses and donkeys are different species, with different numbers of chromosomes. Of the two F1 hybrids between these two species, a mule is easier to obtain than a hinny...
s322241 54812 90367 106927 21277 17948 23678 21485 37788 687523 1st - 51.19% Buffalos Water BuffaloThe water buffalo or domestic Asian water buffalo is a large bovine animal, frequently used as livestock in southern Asia, and also widely in South America, southern Europe, northern Africa, and elsewhere....17303 19239 1631 77503 875 380 730 1747 570 119978 3rd - 10.60% Rabbits 31491 2383 1953 --- 405 --- --- 692 --- 36924 3rd - 12.71% Honey HoneyHoney is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...
tonneTonneThe tonne, known as the metric ton in the US , often put pleonastically as "metric tonne" to avoid confusion with ton, is a metric system unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. The tonne is not an International System of Units unit, but is accepted for use with the SI...
s2200 1177 3137 537 611 76 208 170 3483 11598 2nd - 33.38%
~ means dozens of thousands
As demonstrated on the above table, the Northeast region is a larger producer of goats, sheeps, donkeys, mules, horses and has a reasonable production in pigs, honey, cattle and eggs. That is due mainly to the fact that a large portion of the area is located in Poligono das Secas, which means drought poligonal area or knows popularly as sertão
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. 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...
and/or agreste
Agreste
In Brazil, the agreste is a narrow zone in the states of Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe and Bahia between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão...
. Those areas comprise roughly 66% ( or 81% if discounted the Maranhão state )of all northeast and its characterized to have semi dessertic weather/characteristics such as: hot and dry temperatures, drought, lack and scant rainfall, eroded soil and high evapotranspiration
Evapotranspiration
Evapotranspiration is a term used to describe the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land surface to atmosphere. Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil, canopy interception, and waterbodies...
. Even so, those farmers (in many cases subsistence farmers) are increasing their output by turning to more resistant species like as goats and sheeps (very appreciated in the local culinary), and more workable animals as horses, donkeys and mules to replace and help them to do the machinery
Tractor
A tractor is a vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery used in agriculture or construction...
tasks, if they do have none.
Education
Portuguese languagePortuguese 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...
is the official national language, and thus the primary language taught in schools. But English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and Spanish
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
are part of the official high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
curriculum.
Educational institutions
- Universidade Federal da BahiaUniversidade Federal da BahiaThe Universidade Federal da Bahia is a public university located mainly in the city of Salvador. The largest university of the State of Bahia, and one of the most prestigious Brazilian universities.Students can study there without having to pay tuition fees, as it is a public university...
(UFBA); - Universidade Federal de Alagoas (UFAL);
- Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE);
- Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB);
- Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do NorteUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do NorteThe Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte is a public Brazilian university funded by the Brazilian federal government, located in the city of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil....
(UFRN); - Universidade Federal do CearáUniversidade Federal do CearáFederal University of Ceará is a federal university with campuses in the cities of Fortaleza, Sobral and Barbalha, in the state of Ceará, Brazil...
(UFC); - and many others.
Tourism and recreation
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
has grown significantly in the Region in the last decades, showing the high potential of each State.
Besides the capitals, most coastal cities of the Northeast Region have many natural beauties, such as the Abrolhos Marine National Park
Abrolhos Marine National Park
The Abrolhos Marine National Park is a Marine Park located in the Abrolhos Archipelago since 1983.The Abrolhos are an archipelago of 5 islands with coral reefs off the southern coast of Bahia state in the northeast of Brazil, between 17º25’—18º09’ S and 38º33’—39º05’ W.-External links:***...
, Itacaré
Itacare
Itacaré is a town in the cocoa zone of the state of Bahia in Brazil, south of Salvador. It is located 70 km north of Ilhéus where the Rio de Contas, which comes from the Chapada Diamantina, meets the Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of approximately 8,000....
, Comandatuba Island, Costa do Sauípe, Canasvieiras
Canasvieiras
Canasvieiras is a neighbourhood and beach located in southern Brazil, approximately north-east of the city of Florianópolis on the northern part of Santa Catarina island. Nearby beaches include Jurerê and Cachoeira do Bom Jesus...
and Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro
Porto Seguro is a municipality in the Brazilian state of Bahia. It is the site where the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral first set foot on Brazilian soil on April 22, 1500...
, in the State of Bahia; the Marine National Park of Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha
Fernando de Noronha is an archipelago of 21 islands and islets in the Atlantic Ocean, offshore from the Brazilian coast. The main island has an area of and had a population of 3,012 in the year 2010...
, Porto de Galinhas
Porto de Galinhas
Porto de Galinhas is a beach in the municipality of Ipojuca, Pernambuco, Brazil. Porto de Galinhas is a major tourist destination. The beach is famous for its bright-water beaches and the natural pools.It is part of the municipality of Ipojuca, and located south of the state capital, Recife.It has...
beach in the State of Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
; tropical paradises, such as Canoa Quebrada
Canoa Quebrada
|thumb|right|200px|Canoa QuebradaCanoa Quebrada , known as the pearl of the east coast of Ceará, Brazil, is an international tourist beach resort 164 km from Fortaleza, in the municipality of Aracati....
and Jericoacoara, on the coast of Ceará
Ceará
Ceará is one of the 27 states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic coast. It is currently the 8th largest Brazilian State by population and the 17th by area. It is also one of the main touristic destinations in Brazil. The state capital is the city of...
, as well as the places to practice free flight, as Quixadá
Quixadá
Quixadá is a town and municipality in the state of Ceará, in Brazil. Located at around , it was founded in 1870. Its population was of 80,605 residents in 2010, according to the Brazilian census. It is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Quixadá....
and Sobral
Sobral, Ceará
Sobral is a city in the state of Ceará, Brazil.Sobral is the second largest municipality of Ceará, after Fortaleza. Its economy is based on agriculture, services and some manufacturing industries...
; and Lençóis Maranhenses, embellishing the coast of Maranhão
Maranhão
Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...
State, among many others. In the interior area, National Parks of Serra da Capivara
Serra da Capivara National Park
Serra da Capivara National Park is a national park in the north east of Brazil. It has many prehistoric paintings. The park was created to protect the prehistoric artifacts and paintings found there. It became a World Heritage Site in 1991. Its head archaeologist is Niède Guidon...
and Sete Cidades
Sete Cidades National Park
Sete Cidades National Park is a national park of Brazil....
, both in the State of Piauí
Piauí
Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...
; João Pessoa
João Pessoa
João Pessoa , is the capital city of the state of Paraíba, was founded in 1585 and sometimes called the city where the sun rises first, is a Brazilian city and the easternmost city in the Americas at 34º47'38"W, 7º9'28"S. Local residents call its easternmost point Ponta do Seixas. It is also...
, in the State of Paraíba
Paraíba
Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...
; Chapada Diamantina
Chapada Diamantina National Park
The Chapada Diamantina National Park is a 1,520 km² national park in the Chapada Diamantina region of Bahia state in the Northeast of Brazil...
, in the State of Bahia; and many other attractions.
The economy is based on tourism (in coastal or historical cities) or agriculture. The tourist industry is based largely on the beaches, which attract thousands of tourists per year, not only from other regions of Brazil but also many from Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
(especially Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
), the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
Urban areas and rural areas
Nordeste's major cities are almost all on the Atlantic coast. Some exceptions can be seen, however, like PetrolinaPetrolina
Petrolina is a city located in the southernmost point of the state of Pernambuco, in Brazil. The population was 281.851 in 2009 in a total area of 4756.8 km²....
, Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
, which lies immediately north of the São Francisco River
São Francisco River
The São Francisco is a river in Brazil. With a length of , it is the longest river that runs entirely in Brazilian territory, and the fourth longest in South America and overall in Brazil...
(one of the few rivers that crosses the sertão
Sertão
In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. 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...
and does not dry in the arid periods of time which can be quite long). Another example is the city of Teresina
Teresina
Teresina is the capital and most populous municipality in the Brazilian state of Piauí. It is located in North-central Piauí 366 km from the coast.It is therefore, the only capital in the Northeast that is not located on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean. With 814 439 inhabitants, it is the 19th...
in the state of Piauí
Piauí
Piauí is one of the states of Brazil, located in the northeastern part of the country.Piauí has the shortest coastline of any of the non-landlocked Brazilian states at 66 km , and the capital, Teresina, is the only state capital in the north east to be located inland...
, a city notorious for its sweltering heat.
Good rural areas are scarce and generally they are all near the coast, or in the west of Maranhão, and are mainly used for exportation products. In the semi-arid areas of the Northeast Region, rural areas do exist, but rain is scarce in the region; rural areas in the interior are generally based on subsistence agriculture. Fazendas (large farms) are common in the interior, where cattle-rasing and the cultivation of tropical fruit is often practiced. Also, in the areas where water is scarce local politicians often use the promise of irrigation projects as a bargaining chip to win elections.
Culture
Salvador, Bahia
Salvador 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...
, Recife
Recife
Recife 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...
and Olinda
Olinda
Olinda is a historic city in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, located on the country's northeastern Atlantic Ocean coast, just north of Recife and south of Paulista...
, dance (frevo
Frevo
Frevo is a wide range of musical styles originating from Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil, all of which are traditionally associated with Brazilian Carnival. The word frevo is said to come from frever, a misspeaking of the Portuguese word ferver . It is said that the sound of the frevo will make...
and maracatu
Maracatu
Maracatu is a term common to two distinct performance genres found in Pernambuco state in northeastern Brazil: maracatu de nação and maracatu rural . A third style, maracatu cearense , is found in Fortaleza, in the northeastern state of Ceará...
), music (axé
Axe
The axe, or ax, is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood; to harvest timber; as a weapon; and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol...
and forró
Forró
Forró is a kind of Northeastern Brazilian dance as well as a word used to denote the different genres of music which accompanies the dance. Both are much in evidence during the annual Festa Junina , a part of Brazilian traditional culture which celebrates some Catholic saints...
) and unique cuisine. Dishes particular to the region include carne de sol, farofa
Farofa
Farofa is a toasted manioc flour mixture, though variants are made with maize flour , and flavors can vary. It is eaten in South America and West Africa, especially in Brazil and Nigeria, where a variant is known as gari. It can be found commercially produced and packaged but is often prepared at...
, acarajé
Acarajé
Acarajé is a dish made from peeled black-eyed peas formed into a ball and then deep-fried in dendê . It is found in Nigerian and Brazilian cuisine...
, vatapá
Vatapá
Vatapá is a Brazilian dish made from bread, shrimp, coconut milk, finely ground peanuts and palm oil mashed into a creamy paste. This food is very popular in the North and Northeast, but it is more typical in the northeastern state of Bahia where it is commonly eaten with acarajé, although Vatapá...
, paçoca
Paçoca
Paçoca is the name of two different Brazilian dishes:In northeastern Brazil, especially in Fortaleza, Ceará, and in Rio Grande do Norte, it's a dish made of carne de sol , cassava flour and red onions, ground together in a mortar , for which reason it's also known as paçoca de pilão in the rest of...
, canjica
Canjica
Canjica is a white variety of corn, very typical of Brazilian cuisine. It is mostly used in a special kind of sweet popcorn and in a dish also known as canjica, a Festa Junina popular dish. Made popular in Oklahoma by Ken Davis.- External links:* ....
, pamonha
Pamonha
Pamonha is a traditional Brazilian food. It is a paste made from fresh corn and milk, boiled wrapped in corn husks. Variations may include coconut milk. Pamonhas can be savoury or sweet, the latter being the norm in north-east Brazil...
, moqueca capixaba, quibebe
Quibebe
Quibebe is a dish from Northeastern Brazil. It is a kind of winter squash soup....
, bolo de fubá cozido, sururu de capote and many others. Salvador was the first Brazilian capital.
The festival of São João
São João
São João is Portuguese for "Saint John", and may refer to many saints that have used that name, but also the Apostle John of the New Testament specifically, in addition to:-Architecture:*Forte de São João...
(Saint John), one of the festas juninas, is especially popular in the Northeast, particularly in Caruaru
Caruaru
Caruaru is a Brazilian city in the Pernambuco state. The most populous city in the interior of the state, it's located in the zone named Agreste and because of its cultural importance, it's known by its people as the Capital do Agreste and Princesinha do Agreste.130 kilometers from...
, in the state of Pernambuco
Pernambuco
Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...
and Campina Grande
Campina Grande
Campina Grande is the second most populous Brazilian city in the State of Paraíba after João Pessoa, the capital. It is considered to be the most important city of the Northeastern Brazilian subregion called agreste. It is considered one of the main industrial, technological and educational...
, in the state of Paraíba
Paraíba
Paraíba Paraíba Paraíba (Tupi: pa'ra a'íba: "bad to navigation"; Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: is a state of Brazil. It is located in the Brazilian Northeast, and is bordered by Rio Grande do Norte to the north, Ceará to the west, Pernambuco to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east...
. The festival takes place once a year, in June. As the Northeast is mostly arid or semi-arid the Nordestinos give thanks to Saint John for the rainfall that typical falls this time of year, which greatly helps the farmers with their crops. And because this time of year also coincides with the corn harvest many regional dishes containing corn, such as canjica, pamonha, and milho verde, have become part of the cultural tradition.
The Bumba-Meu-Boi
Bumba Meu Boi
Bumba Meu Boi is a Brazilian folk theatrical tradition - the tale told through the music, the costumes and drumming involves a Bull, which dies and is brought back to life...
festival is also popular, especially in the state of Maranhão
Maranhão
Maranhão is a northeastern state of Brazil. To the north lies the Atlantic Ocean. Maranhão is neighbored by the states of Piauí, Tocantins and Pará. The people of Maranhão have a distinctive accent...
. During the Bumba-Meu-Bói festival in the city of São Luis do Maranhão and its environs there are many different groups, with elaborate costumes and different styles of music, which are called sotaques: sotaque de orquestra, as the names implies, uses an orchestra of saxophones, clarinets, flutes, banjos, drums, etc.; sotaque de zabumba employs primarily very large drums; and sotaque de matraca, a percussion instrument made of two pieces of wood that you carry in your hands and hit against each other. Some matracas are very large and are carried around the neck.
Many major cities in the Northeast also hold an off-season carnaval
Carnival
Carnaval is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnaval typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party...
(or "micareta"), such as the Carnatal
Carnatal
The Carnatal is the largest micareta, or off-season Carnival, in Brazil. It is held annually in December in the city of Natal in the state of Rio Grande do Norte....
in Natal
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
-History:The northeastern tip of South America, Cabo São Roque, to the north of Natal and the closest point to Europe from Latin America, was first visited by European navigators in 1501, in the 1501–1502 Portuguese expedition led by Amerigo Vespucci, who named the spot after the saint of the day...
or the Fortal in Fortaleza
Fortaleza
Fortaleza 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...
. Since its inception in 1991, Carnatal has become the largest off-season carnaval in Brazil. The event takes place once a year, in December, and draws roughly one million participants. The Fortal takes place once every year as well but in the month of July. Held in a stadium called Cidade Fortal, the Fortal is considered the largest indoor off-season carnaval in Brazil.
International airports
- 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...
Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport
Salvador-Deputado Luís Eduardo Magalhães International Airport , formerly called Dois de Julho International Airport is the airport serving Salvador da Bahia, Brazil...
is located in an area of more than 6 million square meters between sand dunes and native vegetation. The road route to the airport has already become one of the city’s main scenic attractions. The airport’s use has been growing at an average of 14% a year and now is responsible for more than 30% of passenger movement in Brazil’s Northeast. Nearly 35 thousand people circulate daily through the passenger terminal. The airport generates more than 16 thousand direct and indirect jobs, to serve a daily average of over 10 thousand passengers, 250 takeoffs and landings of 100 domestic and 16 international flights.
In addition to domestic and regional services, the airport has non-stop flights to 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...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, Santiago
Santiago, Chile
Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Asunción
Asunción
Asunción is the capital and largest city of Paraguay.The "Ciudad de Asunción" is an autonomous capital district not part of any department. The metropolitan area, called Gran Asunción, includes the cities of San Lorenzo, Fernando de la Mora, Lambaré, Luque, Mariano Roque Alonso, Ñemby, San...
and Miami
Miami, Florida
Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...
. Its IATA airport code
IATA airport code
An IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many airports around the world, defined by the International Air Transport Association...
is SSA and it is the sixth busiest airport in the country, the first in northeastern Brazil, behind Congonhas International
Congonhas International Airport
Congonhas/São Paulo Airport is one of the three commercial airports serving São Paulo, Brazil. The airport is named after the neighborhood where it is located, formerly called Vila Congonhas, property of the descendants of Lucas Antônio Monteiro de Barros , Viscount of Congonhas do Campo, first...
, Guarulhos International
Guarulhos International Airport
São Paulo/Guarulhos – Governador André Franco Montoro International Airport , formerly called Cumbica Airport after the district where it is located and the Air Force Base that still exists at the airport complex, is the main airport serving São Paulo, Brazil. It is located in the adjoining...
, Juscelino Kubitschek International, Santos Dumont Regional
Santos Dumont Regional Airport
Santos Dumont Airport is the second major airport serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is named after the Brazilian aviation pioneer Alberto Santos Dumont ....
and Galeão International
Galeão - Antônio Carlos Jobim International Airport
Rio de Janeiro/Galeão-Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport popularly known by its original name Galeão International Airport is the main airport serving Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...
.
- 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...
Guararapes International Airport
Recife/Guararapes-Gilberto Freyre International Airport is the airport serving Recife, Brazil. The name Guararapes is a reference to the Guararapes Battle, fought in the surrounding area...
.
The new Recife/Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre
Gilberto Freyre
Gilberto de Mello Freyre was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter and congressman. His best-known work is a sociological treatise named Casa-Grande & Senzala...
International Airport has been open since July 2004 and has 52 thousand square meters of area.
The largest airport in the North and Northeast regions, Guararapes had its capacity expanded from 1.5 million to 5 million passengers a year. There are currently 64 check-in counters, versus the former terminal’s 24.
The shopping and leisure area was also totally remodeled, within the “Aeroshopping” concept, which transforms an airport into a center for business, comfort and high-quality products and services. The commercial spaces will be occupied in steps and the final total will be 142 shops.
Since 2000, Recife has had the longest runway in the Northeast, at 3,305 meters. Its extension permits operations with jumbo jets, such as the Boeing 747-400
Boeing 747-400
The Boeing 747-400 is a major development and the best-selling model of the Boeing 747 family of jet airliners. While retaining the four-engine wide-body layout of its predecessors, the 747-400 embodies numerous technological and structural changes to produce a more efficient airframe...
, which can carry 290 passengers and 62 tons of cargo, with endurance to fly nonstop to anywhere in South and Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and parts of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Current domestic destinations include most major cities in Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, and there are also international flights to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, 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...
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
and Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
.
- 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...
Pinto Martins International Airport
Pinto Martins International Airport is the airport serving Fortaleza, Brazil. It is named after Euclides Pinto Martins a Ceará-born aviator, who in 1922 was one of the pioneers of the air-link between New York and Rio de Janeiro....
is situated in Fortaleza. The passenger terminal is air conditioned and has four levels. The basement level has parking for 1,000 cars as well as automatic teller machines and a stop for regular city buses.
The ground level has 31 check-in counters, airline offices, car rental agencies, special tourist information, a juvenile court bureau to facilitate travel of minors, a National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) office, information counter, passenger arrival area and access to two taxi stops.
The second level contains shops, a food court
Food court
A food court is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dining. Food courts may be found in shopping malls and airports, and in various regions may be a standalone development...
and domestic and international boarding lounges. The top floor has a beer garden and panoramic deck overlooking the maneuvering apron with a view of the Fortaleza skyline
Skyline
A skyline is the overall or partial view of a city's tall buildings and structures consisting of many skyscrapers in front of the sky in the background. It can also be described as the artificial horizon that a city's overall structure creates. Skylines serve as a kind of fingerprint of a city, as...
. The apron is 152,857 square meters and can accommodate 14 aircraft at once in pre-established positions (“boxes”).
The scheduled airlines operating out of Fortaleza are Cabo Verde Airlines (code-sharing with TAP), TAM, Varig, TAP, Delta Air Lines, Alitalia, Livingston and TUI Airlines. The airport also frequently receives domestic and international flights, some of them charters. The passenger terminal, opened in 1998, was designed to have a useful life of 50 years. The former terminal, called the General Aviation Terminal, is now used for general aviation and the fire brigade. The control tower
Control tower
A control tower, or more specifically an Air Traffic Control Tower , is the name of the airport building from which the air traffic control unit controls the movement of aircraft on and around the airport. Control towers are also used to control the traffic for other forms of transportation such...
is located alongside.
Construction of a cargo terminal is the next big step planned by Infraero
Infraero
Empresa Brasileira de Infraestrutura Aeroportuária, Infraero in short, is a Brazilian government corporation created in 1972 and responsible for operating the main Brazilian commercial airports. In 2009, Infraero's airports carried 128,135,616 passengers and 1,114,754 tons of cargo and operated...
. The new terminal will have roughly eight thousand square meters, boosting the cargo storage and handling capacity fourfold. Plans then call for the new terminal to be integrated with highway and railroad links.
Celebrities
The Northeast of Brazil is home to some of the most notable Brazilians, such as:- José Ermírio de Moraes, entrepreneur, founder of the Votorantim GroupVotorantim GroupVotorantim Group is one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Latin America, operating in various sectors such as finance, energy, siderurgy, steel, pulp and paper among others...
, the Votorantim GroupVotorantim GroupVotorantim Group is one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Latin America, operating in various sectors such as finance, energy, siderurgy, steel, pulp and paper among others...
is one of the largest industrial conglomerates in Latin America, operating in various sectors such as finance, energy, siderurgy, steel, pulp and paper among others; - Ruy BarbosaRuy BarbosaRuy Barbosa de Oliveira was a Brazilian writer, jurist, and politician.Born in Salvador da Bahia, he was a federal representative, senator, Minister of Finance and diplomat. For his distinguished participation in the Hague Peace Conference of 1907, he earned the nickname "Eagle of the Hague"...
, one of the most important Brazilian intellectuals; - Aurélio Buarque de HolandaAurélio Buarque de Holanda FerreiraAurélio Buarque de Holanda Ferreira was a Brazilian lexicographer, philologist, translator, and writer, best known for editing the Novo Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, a major dictionary of the Portuguese language....
, author of the most widely Portuguese Dictionary adopted and cited in Brazil; since its publication, it was so often referred to, that its very name became incorporated as an Idiom into the Language, as a source of reliability of information regarding concepts in dispute; - Maurício PeixotoMaurício PeixotoMaurício Matos Peixoto, born on April 15 of 1921, in Fortaleza, Ceará, is a Brazilian engineer who pursued a bright career as a mathematician. He pioneered the studies on structural stability, and is the author of Peixoto's theorem....
, brilliant mathematician, he pioneered the studies on structural stabilityStructural stabilityIn mathematics, structural stability is a fundamental property of a dynamical system which means that the qualitative behavior of the trajectories is unaffected by C1-small perturbations....
, and he is the author of the Peixoto's theoremPeixoto's theoremIn the theory of dynamical systems, Peixoto theorem, proved by Maurício Peixoto, states that among all smooth flows on surfaces, i.e. compact two-dimensional manifolds, structurally stable systems may be characterized by the following properties:...
; - Luís da Câmara CascudoLuís da Câmara CascudoLuís da Câmara Cascudo was a Brazilian anthropologist, folklorist, journalist, historian, lawyer, and lexicographer....
, the most important folklorist of the country; - Paulo FreirePaulo FreirePaulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator and influential theorist of critical pedagogy.-Biography:...
, educator and an influential theorist of Critical Pedagogy; - Carlos Paz de AraújoCarlos Paz de AraújoCarlos A. Paz de Araújo , B.S., M.S., PhD, is a Brazilian American scientist and inventor. He collects a portfolio of nearly 600 patents registered in his name...
, Brazilian scientist and inventor, he holds nearly 600 patents in the area of nanotechnologyNanotechnologyNanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
; - Nelson RodriguesNélson RodriguesNelson Falcão Rodrigues was a Brazilian playwright, journalist and novelist. In 1943, he helped usher in a new era in Brazilian theater with his play Vestido de Noiva , considered revolutionary for the complex exploration of its characters' psychology and its use of colloquial dialog...
, one of the greatest Brazilian playwrighters, revered to this day as the founder of Brazil's Modern Theater, he was a revolutionary creator, with a penchant for the deep Psychological Profile of Characters. One of his most controversial works was "Vestido de Noiva" (1943), which introduced a totally different concept in Narrative Style, both timeless and simultaneous, presenting the action in its three planes (Hallucination-Dream, Reality and Memory) at the same time, this way blewing the old chronologically structure. His brought an innovation in Theater yet to be rivalled, much copied worldwide, both in Cinema and in Theaters - but never properly credited. He was born in Recife, PE; - Glauber Rocha, one of the most important Movie Directors in the Country, born in Bahia, which creativeness and bold, imaginative solutions influenced many world directors afterwards;
- Clóvis BeviláquaClóvis BeviláquaClóvis Beviláqua was a Brazilian jurist, historian and journalist born in Viçosa do Ceará Clóvis Beviláqua (1859–1944) was a Brazilian jurist, historian and journalist born in Viçosa do Ceará Clóvis Beviláqua (1859–1944) was a Brazilian jurist, historian and journalist born in Viçosa do Ceará...
, considered to be one of the most important Brazilian Jurists, author of the Brazilian Civil Code of 1916; - Mário SchenbergMário SchenbergMário Schenberg, , var. Mário Schönberg, Mario Schonberg, Mário Schoenberg), was a Jewish Brazilian electrical engineer, physicist, art critic and writer.-The Urca process:...
, physicist; - Fernando de MendonçaFernando de MendonçaFernando de Mendonça is a Brazilian electronic engineer and researcher, founder and first director of Brazil's National Institute for Space Research. -Career:...
, electronic engineer, founder of Brazil's National Institute for Space ResearchNational Institute for Space ResearchThe National Institute for Space Research is a research unit of the Brazilian Ministry of Science and Technology, whose main goals are fostering scientific research and technological applications and qualifying personnel in the fields of space and atmospheric sciences, space engineering, and space...
; - Jorge AmadoJorge AmadoJorge Leal Amado de Faria was a Brazilian writer of the Modernist school. He was the best-known of modern Brazilian writers, his work having been translated into some 49 languages and popularized in film, notably Dona Flor and her Two Husbands in 1978...
, for over 50 years, the most famous Brazilian Writer, whose work only recently was surpassed in sales worldwide by the bestsellers penned by Paulo Coelho; - José de AlencarJosé de AlencarJosé Martiniano de Alencar was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, orator, novelist and dramatist. He is one of the most famous writers of the first generation of Brazilian Romanticism, writing historical, regionalist and Indianist romances — being the most famous The Guarani...
, a very important writer from the XIX Century, whose work is a stepping stone for most of the Modern Brazilian Literature; - Luíza ErundinaLuiza Erundina- Political history :From 1980 to 1997 she was affiliated with the PT party . In 1997 she changed to the PSB party. Erundina served on the São Paulo city council from 1983-1987. From 1987-1988 she was a state deputy for the state of São Paulo. She was São Paulo's mayor from 1989 to 1992, and is...
, of humble background, she became the first female mayor of 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...
; - Rachel de QueirozRachel de QueirozRachel de Queiroz was a Brazilian author and journalist....
, writer; the first woman to become part of the Academia Brasileira de Letras; - Ferreira GullarFerreira GullarFerreira Gullar is the pen name for José Ribamar Ferreira , Brazilian poet, playwright, essayist, art critic, and television writer...
, Brazilian poet, one of the founders of Neoconcretismo; - Assis Chateaubriand, media conglomerate owner, one of the most influential personalities in Brazil in the XX century, he founded the first television networkTelevision networkA television network is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, whereby a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay TV providers. Until the mid-1980s, television programming in most countries of the world was dominated by a small...
of Latin America and the fifth in the world (Tupi TV); he is also known for having founded MASPMaspMASP is an abbreviation for:* São Paulo Museum of Art * Mid Atlantic Star Party*MASP *MASP1 *MASP2...
(São Paulo Museum of Art); - João Cabral de Melo NetoJoão Cabral de Melo NetoJoão Cabral de Melo Neto was born in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, and is considered one of the greatest Brazilian poets of all time.He is often quoted saying "I try not to perfume the flower"...
, a remarkable Brazilian Writer and Poet, whose body of work is a solid reference to the hardships of the local people endures; - Gilberto FreyreGilberto FreyreGilberto de Mello Freyre was a Brazilian sociologist, anthropologist, historian, writer, painter and congressman. His best-known work is a sociological treatise named Casa-Grande & Senzala...
, Brazilian Sociologist, author of a definitive work about the structure of Brazil's Social Relations, the "Casa Grande & Senzala", an obligatory source of the origins of the intrincated Social & Ethnics in the Country; - Paulo RibenboimPaulo RibenboimPaulo Ribenboim is a mathematician who specializes in number theory. Ribenboim was born in Recife, Brazil, and has lived in Canada since 1962. He has authored 13 books and 120 articles...
, Brazilian Mathematician; - Celso FurtadoCelso FurtadoCelso Monteiro Furtado was an important Brazilian economist and one of the most distinguished intellectuals of his country during the 20th century. His work focuses on development and underdevelopment and on the persistence of poverty in peripheral countries throughout the world...
, notable Economist, who while in exile was guest teacher in the University of Sorbonne, in Paris, France; - Nísia FlorestaNísia FlorestaNísia Floresta Brasileira Augusta, pseudony of Dionísia Gonçalves Pinto, was a Brazilian educator, writer, poet and feminist....
, pioneer of feminism in Brasil; - Pontes de MirandaFrancisco Cavalcanti Pontes de MirandaFrancisco Cavalcanti Pontes de Miranda was a prominent Brazilian jurist, judge, diplomat and professor of Law at the Federal University of Pernambuco...
, jurist; - Anísio Teixeira, a remarkable Educator, pioneer of many strategies for Education to reach all levels of Society, not only those able to pay to attend elite schools;
- Pirajá da SilvaPirajá da SilvaManuel Augusto Pirajá da Silva was a Brazilian parasitologist, medical researcher and physician.-Biography:...
, responsible for the identification of the cycle of the Schistosomiasis; - Teixeira de FreitasAugusto Teixeira de FreitasAugusto Teixeira de Freitas was a prominent Brazilian jurist whose prolific writings inspired all South American private law codifications.After studies at Olinda and São Paulo, Teixeira de Freitas practiced law as an advocate and jurisconsult...
, jurist, author of a Brazilian Civil Code sketch which would influence other neighbouring South American countries. - Gregório de Matos, a notable Poet;
- Gonçalves Dias, poet;
- Ariano SuassunaAriano SuassunaAriano Suassuna is a Brazilian playwright and author.He is in the "Movemento Amorial". He founded the Student Theater at Federal University of Pernambuco....
, a remarkable playwrighter, which work has been focus of a recent revival, via TV and Cinema adaptations; - Luiz GonzagaLuiz GonzagaLuiz Gonzaga do Nascimento was a very prominent Brazilian folk singer, songwriter, musician and poet. Born in the countryside of Pernambuco , he is considered to be responsible for the promotion of northeastern music throughout the rest of the country...
, a very influential, seminal musician, author of many successes, including "Asa Branca", with Humberto Teixeira; - Gilberto GilGilberto GilGilberto Passos Gil Moreira , better known as Gilberto Gil or , is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment...
, musician - Alceu ValençaAlceu ValençaAlceu Valença is a Brazilian composer, writer, performer, actor, and poet.Alceu Valenca was born in countryside Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil...
, musician - Raul SeixasRaul SeixasRaul Santos Seixas June 28, 1945 Salvador Northeast Brazil – August 21, 1989),was a Brazilian rock composer, singer, songwriter and producer.He is sometimes called the "Father of Brazilian Rock" and "Maluco Beleza"....
, musician - Caetano VelosoCaetano VelosoCaetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
, musician - Dorival CaymmiDorival CaymmiDorival Caymmi was a Brazilian singer, songwriter, actor, and painter active for more than 70 years beginning in 1933...
, musician - Sílvio RomeroSílvio RomeroSílvio Vasconcelos da Silveira Ramos Romero was a Brazilian "Condorist" poet, essayist, literary critic, professor and journalist....
, folklorist - Graciliano RamosGraciliano RamosGraciliano Ramos de Oliveira was a Brazilian Post-Modernist writer, politician and journalist. In most of his novels he depicts the precarious situation of the poor inhabitants of the Brazilian sertão.-Life:Graciliano Ramos de Oliveira was born in the city of Quebrangulo, in the Brazilian State...
, important Brazilian writer - Castro AlvesCastro AlvesAntônio Frederico de Castro Alves was a Brazilian poet and playwright, famous for his Abolitionist and Republican poems...
, Brazilian poet - Geraldo VandréGeraldo VandréGeraldo Vandré , is a Brazilian singer, composer and guitar player.In 1966 his song Disparada , interpreted by Jair Rodrigues, was a success at the Record Festival...
, one of the most notable Musicians during the mid-60's, author of many songs against the then dictatorship imposed in the country. Among the many are: "Disparada"; "Aroeira" and his most famous composition, "Pra Não Dizer que Não Falei das Flores (also known as "Caminhando" - or "Walking")", which lead to his arrest, torture and forced exile from the Country; - Hermeto PascoalHermeto PascoalHermeto Pascoal is a Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist. He was born in Lagoa da Canoa, Alagoas, Brazil. Pascoal is a greatly beloved musical figure in the history of Brazilian music, known for his abilities at orchestration and improvisation, as well as being a record producer and...
, notable worldwide famous and influential Musician, creator of a revolutionary style and approach to Music, born in Arapiraca, Alagoas; - Graça AranhaGraça AranhaJosé Pereira da Graça Aranha was a Brazilian writer and diplomat, considered to be a forerunner of the Modernism in Brazil. He was also one of the organizers of the Brazilian Modern Art Week of 1922....
, writer - Aluísio de Azevedo, writer, precursor of the modern, urban Literature;
- Martha VasconcellosMartha VasconcellosMartha Vasconcellos , is a Brazilian who became that country's second Miss Universe winner, after Ieda Maria Vargas first achieved the feat in 1963. She also became the fifth Latin American to win the title, after Peru's Gladys Zender in 1957, Colombia's Luz Marina Zuluaga in 1958 and Argentina's...
, Miss Universe in 1968 - Martha RochaMartha RochaMaria Martha Hacker Rocha is a former Brazilian beauty pageant contestant.She is the seventh child of engineer Álvaro Rocha and housewife Hansa. At the age of 18, in 1954, after winning the title of Miss Bahia in her home state, she became the first Miss Brazil to become a finalist of the Miss...
, famous Miss Brazil - Adriana LimaAdriana LimaAdriana Lima is a Brazilian model, best known as a Victoria's Secret Angel since 2000, and as a spokesmodel for Maybelline cosmetics from 2003 to 2009...
, famous international model - Norberto OdebrechtNorberto OdebrechtNorberto Odebrecht is a Brazilian engineer, businessman and founder of the Brazilian Odebrecht Foundation ....
, entrepreneur from the Building Industry; - Padre CíceroPadre CíceroPadre Cícero was born Cícero Romão Batista in Ceará, Brazil. He was the son of Joaquim Romão Batista and Joaquina Vicência Romana. When he was 6 years old, he started to study with professor Rufino de Alcântara Montezuma.One important thing about his infancy is his pledge of chastity, made when he...
, the most historically important and revered Spiritual Leader of the whole Region to this very day, believed to be a Miracle Man, a Saint and who is still unanimously and widely worshipped in the Northeast, beyond any boundaries, Religious or otherwise. No other name can unite the whole Region as this "Santo Homem"; - LampiãoLampião"Captain" Virgulino Ferreira da Silva, better known as Lampião , was the most famous leader of a Cangaço band, marauders and outlaws who terrorized the Brazilian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s.-Biography:...
, most famous leader of a Cangaço band, marauders and outlaws who defied the authorities of Brazilian Northeast in the 1920s and 1930s. He was considered a Fair figure by the people, and a feared, charismatic Public Leader by the legal authorities; - Casimiro Montenegro FilhoCasimiro Montenegro FilhoCasimiro Montenegro Filho was a Brazilian army and air force officer. He reached the rank of Marechal-do-ar, the highest rank of the Brazilian Air Force rank system....
, founder of the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA); - ZumbiZumbiZumbi , also known as Zumbi dos Palmares, was the last of the leaders of the Quilombo dos Palmares, in the present-day state of Alagoas, Brazil.-Quilombos:...
, a Freedom Fighter, leader of Brazil's most important Quilombo, the "Quilombo of Palmares"; - Humberto de Alencar Castelo BrancoHumberto de Alencar Castelo BrancoMarshal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco was a Brazilian military leader and politician.He was President of Brazil, as a military dictator, after the 1964 coup d'etat...
, former Brazilian president - Marshal Deodoro da FonsecaDeodoro da FonsecaMarshal Manuel Deodoro da Fonseca became the first president of the Republic of Brazil after heading a military coup that deposed Emperor Pedro II and proclaimed the Republic in 1889, disestablishing the Empire of Brazil.- Biography :...
, leader of the Proclamation of the Brazilian Republic; - Epitácio PessoaEpitácio PessoaEpitácio Lindolfo da Silva Pessoa was a Brazilian politician and jurist, and president of the republic between 1919 and 1922, when Rodrigues Alves could not take office due to illness after being elected in 1918...
, former Brazilian president - Floriano PeixotoFloriano PeixotoFloriano 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...
, former Brazilian president - Luiz Inácio Lula da SilvaLuiz Inácio Lula da SilvaLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva , known popularly as Lula, served as the 35th President of Brazil from 2003 to 2010.A founding member of the Workers' Party , he ran for President three times unsuccessfully, first in the 1989 election. Lula achieved victory in the 2002 election, and was inaugurated as...
, former Brazilian president - José SarneyJosé SarneyJosé Sarney de Araújo Costa is a Brazilian lawyer, writer and politician. He served as president of Brazil from 15 March 1985 to 15 March 1990....
, former president