Brazil and Privatization
The earliest inhabitants of Brazil were the Indians. However, the country’s recorded history begins with the arrival of the Portuguese in 1500. The Portuguese sailor Pedro Alvares Cabral visited the continent we call South America, eight years after Columbus arrived in America. Portuguese settlers followed, calling the new colony Brazil, after the brazilwood tree that they extracted red dye from. The Portuguese did not bring prosperity and progress to the Indians. Instead, they unintentionally infected and killed thousands of Indians with diseases such as measles and smallpox.
The growing number of settlers spurred the exploration of Brazil. Frontiersmen called bandeirantes established Brazil’s claim to lands in the west. Their main purpose was to search for slaves and gold. They found gold in Minas Gerais in 1693, setting off a gold rush that drew thousands of settlers to Brazil’s center.
During the 1500s and 1600s, five million African slaves were brought to Brazil to work on the sugarcane plantations. The slaves did not submit willingly to their fate. Many escaped and formed independent colonies called quilombos. After Brazil gained independence, a movement to end slavery slowly grew. Slavery was abolished in 1888. Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery.
Brazil was declared independent of Portugal in 1822 and became republic in 1889. Since then the country has been run by democratic governments and by military governments. Brazil today is a democratic republic with a president.
In the 1950’s, extensive amounts of money were spent on building hydroelectric plants, highways and other economic projects. This set the stage for future growth, but also brought economic problems by putting the nation into debt. In the 1970s industry grew and provided thousand of jobs under military rule. The economy stopped growing in the 1980s and Brazil was unable to pay back its loans again. Frustrated by the debt and growing public discontent, the military handed power back to the civilian government in 1985.
Culture
Brazil has a huge range of music and dance styles. Brazil’s music, dances and instruments are developed from the blending of European, African, and indigenous Indian roots. The most famous dance is the samba, which is their national beat. An...
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...stry and keep up with the changing technology, the best way to optimize economy for their country is through competition.
Works Cited
Brazil Country Facts
1http://atheism.about.com/library/world/AJ/bl_BrazilFacts.htm?iam=momma_100_SKD&terms=%22brazil%22#people (2002)
Buttelli, Synara. Privatization.
2http://www.gwu.edu/~ibi/minerva/spring2001/synara.buttelli.pdf
Novaes, Ana. The Privatization of the Brazilian Telecommunications Sector.
3http://www.brasilemb.org/trade_investment/Ensa10_telecommunication.pdf (1997)
4 “Inter-American Trade” Published by the National Law Center for Inter-American Free Trade, Vol 5, N11, P1, May 29, 1998.
5 Werner, HM “Latin American Telecom Bursts Out of the Gate” Buyouts Vol 21 Issue 21, p26, 10/25/99.
The Privatization of Telecommunications in Brazil.
6 http://www.led.ufsc.br/~leslie/privatization/sec1.htm (1994)
7 “Sector Outlook – Telecommunications” Latin American Monitor: Brazil Monitor, Vol 21 Issue 10, Oct. 2004.
8 Costain, Meredith & Collins, Paul. Welcome to Brazil. South Yarra, Australia: Macmillan Education Australia Pty Ltd, 2000
9 Meade, Teresa. A Brief History of Brazil. New York, NY: Checkmark Books, 2004
For More than two decades Brazil suffered badly from high inflation, economic decline, domestic and foreign debt. In 1993, country’s Inflation reached 30 percent a month and as a result the country wouldn’t sustain growth. After many unsuccessful plans to control the inflation, finally Real Plan of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, minister of finance, worked out and brought the inflation down to a single digit.
Unlike the colonizing philosophy of the Spanish, the Portuguese in Brazil were much less focused at first on conquering, controlling, and developing the country. Most were sailors, who were far more interested in profitable trade and subsistence agriculture than in territorial expansion.
In the 1500s Pedro Alvares Cabral landed on Brazil, previously a inhabited by tribal nations, and claimed the land in the name of Portugal. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until September 7, 1822 when it declared its independence becoming the Empire of Brazil making the nation a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system. In early 1964, a Military junta took control of the nation until it fell in 1985 further changing the structure of the nation, and finally in 1988 a formal constitution was created enacting 26 states encompassing its boarders. Throughout the history of Brazil, the nation was never able to fully immerse itself in the international market and expand its economy, until today. Latin America has not had the best of luck when it comes to economic development and many nations in Latin America have similar issues when it comes to economic and societal development, and many of these issues are cause by the same things. For example, before the military coup in 1964 Brazil was in massive amounts of debt to international partners, however, during the military rule the payment of this debt was halted so the trust and economic backing of countries stopped with the payments. Many plans have been enacted after the fall of the military control to reverse the economic downfall that occurred in the country and continent in the 20th century and especially in the 1980s, the lost decade. In Brazil alone, there have been at least seven economic plans to reverse the economic hardships of the country, from the Cruzado Plan to the Real Plan, none seemed to work. However, in the past decade the Brazilian economy has seen an amazing increase and the condition of life of the people in the nation has increased with it. The quest...
In the past few decades, Brazil has turned around their economy from bust after boom to a strong and growing economy. Between the 16th and 18th centuries, Brazil was reliant on its sugar industry, until the Caribbean became a competitor for the country. Unfortunately, these sugar booms caused the plantation owners to receive all of the profit, which created a large gap between the very rich and very poor, with no middle class. The gold industry had some prospects, but because the gold rushes were in isolated areas, the mon...
Following a brief introduction of the history of the development of Brazil, I have broken the paper into five sections; each section is dedicated to one of the five main contributing factors of deforestation. The five main contributors are cattle ranching, farming, logging, infrastructure development, and weaknesses in the government. In each section I will discuss how each factor effects the environment and Brazil at large.
You probably heard of Brazil but, do you know much about it? Brazil is a beautiful place or country, in South America. It’s great for tourists’ sites; it has amazing land features, and especially cool culture and history. Brazil has a tremendous amount of nature and folktale. Brazil was found actually, over 8,000 years ago. The Portuguese were the first European settlers to arrive there. The journey was led by Pedro Cabral who began in the 1500s. When they finally got there they found Native Americans living there. They were around the seven millions.
Brazil is far from being a paradise on Earth. There is still a lot to be done. But from the eyes of an expat, I can see clearer the results of continuous transformations in Brazil than my fellow compatriots who are living and experiencing every small change over time. I have seen more changes in education and health happening lately than during my entire lifetime. I grew up hearing from several sources that Brazil would some day be the "country of the future." I thought that I would not live to see this day. Today, I can say that we are closer to the promised "future" than we ever were. Brazil is not the same as it was ten years ago. This country can finally be proud to honor the words written on its flag - "Order and Progress."
Conclusion: Brazil with the rest of the BRIC nations have a long way to go before their current economic development translates into benefits for the majority of the population. Fortunately, Brazil has great strengths. Thanks to its efficient and entrepreneurial farmers, it is the world’s third-biggest food exporter. Even if the government has made the process slower and costlier than it needed to be, Brazil will be a big oil exporter by 2020. It has several manufacturing jewels, and is developing a world-class research base in biotechnology, genetic sciences and deep-sea oil and gas technology. The consumer brands that have grown along with the country’s expanding middle class are ready to go abroad. Despite the recent protests, it does not have the social or ethnic divisions that blight other emerging economies, such as India or Turkey.
Brazilian heritage was founded on the native people that lived in the country before its colonization, the colonizers that immigrated to the country, and the slaves that were brought. Brazil has the second largest African population in the world, so its heritage also has some African culture.
...ed the economy ended and allowed the economy to grow. FHC became president in January 1995 and was able to initiate more changes. During his eight years in office, education and healthcare dramatically improved. Students attending high school and colleges increased while the drop out rate decreased. Infant mortality rate decreased as well as the number of deaths from AIDS reduced. On January 1, 2003 FHC passed his power over to his successor, Lula. Lula’s eight years in office have been called the most corrupt in Brazil’s history as a republic. His excessive drinking and abuse of power (almost like a dictator) has led to some criticism but as far as most Brazilians are concerned, most fault lies with Congress and cabinet ministers. Overall, during Lula’s term income grew, distribution of wealth improved significantly, and the hyperinflation was completely rid of.
In 1973 the first oil shock caused some problems for Brazil. Even though Brazil is very rich in natural resources, it depends on imported oil. The government had to borrow money, but 50% of foreign debt was done by state owned ent...
Before 1930, the Brazilian economy was dominated by a number of agricultural and mineral products for export. The world economic depression of the 1930s encouraged the government to diversify the economy, particularly through industrialization. Consequently, the importance of agriculture and mining has fallen significantly. A major objective of Brazil's industrialization policy was to replace imported manufactures with Brazilian-made ones. It is now able to export goods such as iron ore, soybeans, footwear, and coffee. Its imports include machinery and equipment, chemical products, oil, and electricity.
2. Burns, Bradford E. . A History of Brazil: Second Edition. New York: Cornell University Press, 1980.
In the current economic times the development and growth of any economy has come to a near stop or at least to a drastic slow down. The face of the global economic environment has changed and many new countries are starting to change the way their country and the rest of the world does business. One such nation is Brazil, who has turned around their own economic troubles and is becoming one of the fastest growing economies in the world (World Factbook). Brazil has started developing its economy and using the opportunity to achieve a level of respect in the world.
Brazil is a diverse and enormous country. There are large, medium and small sized aities that stretch from coast. From Brazilian cit...