Cover	Antarctica	Australia	Brazil	India		Liberia	Mexico	Spain	Credits
Brazil
INTRODUCTION & HISTORY This modern multiracial culture combines foods, farming methods, and languages of its native people; music, cooking, and religious practices of Africans; and architecture, social customs, and business practices of Europeans. Pedro Cabral claimed Brazil for Portugal in 1500. The next year Amerigo Vespucci sailed there on another Portuguese expedition and wrote an account of his journey. The American continents were named after him. At first the Europeans wanted brazilwood, which they used to make red and purple dyes. Sugar became a major export, with thousands of African slaves brought in to work in sugar plantations and mills. The discovery of gold and diamonds, and demand for coffee and rubber, played a large part in Brazil's development. Brazil won a peaceful independence in 1822. In its informal society today everyone is addressed by their first name or a nickname, even professors, politicians, and the president. SPECIAL FACT Amazonian piranha fish can strip a person to the bone in less than one minute.