People in Brazil speak Portuguese while the rest of South America speaks Spanish. This is because Brazil was once a Portuguese colony. In 1493, Pope Alexander VI split South America between Spain and Portugal. Alexander decreed that Portugal would control the eastern part of South America and Spain would control the western portion. Today neither Portugal nor Spain has a presence in South America, but the continent has borrowed their cultures.
Brazil has an interesting history .
In 1808, the King of Portugal moved to Brazil and made the colony the center of the Portuguese empire. The following year Pedro declared Brazil and independent nation and crowned himself emperor. Pedro and his successors ruled Brazil until a military coup in 1889, a year after Brazil abolished slavery. Fernando Henrique Cardoso was elected president in 1994 and is likely to run again in elections later this year. After many years of turmoil, Brazil is now a democracy.