Brazil is the largest country in South America and has Portuguese as its official language.
Brazil occupies about 8.5 million square kilometres, making it the fifth-largest country in the world by area. It covers most of eastern South America and has a long Atlantic coastline. Portuguese became dominant because Brazil was colonized by Portugal beginning in the sixteenth century.
Brazil is the only country in the Americas where Portuguese is the national official language at federal level. Its Portuguese developed distinctive pronunciation, vocabulary and expressions compared with European Portuguese, while Indigenous and African languages also influenced Brazilian speech and culture.
The country contains much of the Amazon Basin and is home to diverse ecosystems including the Cerrado, Atlantic Forest, Pantanal and Caatinga. Brasília has been the capital since 1960; Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo are better-known internationally, but neither is the national capital.