It's Independence Day today in Brazil!

195 years ago, we became independent, so I thought I should share some facts about Brazil today. Hope you enjoy it :)

1. Pedro álvares Cabral "discovered Brazil". Apparently, he was sailing for India when he landed on the Brazilian coast on April 22, 1500. He then claimed Brazil for the Portuguese Empire (footnote: There were people living there, not sure about how did the negotiation go, but he claimed us (it) anyway).
2. They (the Portuguese) named Brazil as "Terra do Santa Cruz" (Land of the Holy Cross), but traders simply called it Terra do Brasil
3. Speaking of Brazil, the word “Brazil" means “red like an ember”. It comes from a tree called Pau Brasil ('Brazilwood'). A dye, taken from the tree’s heartwood, provides an immensely valuable, and almost indestructible, timber used to manufacture bows for stringed instruments, construction and to make traditional hunting tools. We're now running out of it.
4. The Portuguese ruled over Brazil since 1500, so the declaration of independence in 1822 ended 322 years of Portuguese rule. 
5. On September 7, 1822, Prince Pedro (not 'álvares Cabral', this one was long dead by 1822) refused to return to Portugal. He then threw his sword and yelled "Independência ou morte!" ('Independence or death', not to be confused with 'cake or death').

Now that you know a bit more about our background, here are some mixed interesting facts (thank you, internet). Here we go:

1. Brazil's population is around 210 million, making us the fifth most populous country in the world (about 1/3 live in Ireland now). 
2. Brazil covers 47% of South America (yes, we're 'Americans' too) and we have borders with every country in South America with the exception of Ecuador and Chile (sorry lads). 
3. Brazil is undisputed the largest coffee producer in the world. In 2014, we produced a staggering 2,594,100,000 kilograms of coffee beans (about 30% of the world's total). Roughly half of that is consumed in our offices every day.
4. Why are we so known for football? Brazil is the only country to have qualified for all 18 World Cups and has won it a record 5 times (no pressure on anyone who joins the squad).
5. S?o Paulo, my hometown, is the largest economy by GDP of any city in the Southern Hemisphere (arguably in the top 15 worldwide). 
6. Brazil has more than airports than any other country other than the US (The US has 13K and we have 4K).
7. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan. Some 1.5 million-2.5 million Brazilians are of Japanese descent. A bit over 600K people of Japanese Brazilians are in S?o Paulo and I absolutely love Japanese food.
8. Brazil is one of the world’s most biodiverse countries, with a total of four million plant and animal species, yet diversity is just getting started there.