Discovery of
Brazil
Brazil
This Portuguese explorer reached Brazil in 1500 while sailing to India.
Pedro Alvares Cabral
The imaginary line that passes through northern Brazil.
Equator
The highest Himalayan range.
Himadri
The river with the greatest discharge in the world.
Amazon River
The warm ocean current flowing along Brazil's eastern coast.
Brazil Current
The crop that transformed Brazil into a plantation economy.
sugarcane
The imaginary line that passes through the middle of India.
tropic of cancer
This Brazilian landform contains most of the country's major mineral deposits.
Brazilian Highlands
The three river systems responsible for forming India's Northern Plains.
Indus, Ganga, Brahmaputra
The type of rainfall common in the Amazon Basin.
Convectional rainfall
Why did plantation owners increasingly rely on enslaved Africans instead of
Indigenous people?
Plantations needed a large
labour force; many Indigenous
people resisted, died from
disease, or escaped.
Which country experiences a stronger equatorial influence? Justify
Brazil because the Equator
passes through it.
Which physiographic region would be better suited for intensive agriculture: the
Amazon Plain or the Northern Plains? Why?
Northern Plains because of
fertile alluvial soil.
Which river would be more important for transporting people and goods through
dense rainforest: the Amazon or the Ganga? Explain.
Amazon River
A moist trade wind from the Atlantic reaches the Serra do Mar. Explain how this
escarpment changes the weather.
The air is forced to rise, cool,
condense, and produce
orographic rainfall.
If sugarcane plantations had never expanded, which major historical system might
have been much smaller in scale?
Atlantic Slave Trade
A traveller moves south through Brazil. How would the climate most likely
change?
Equatorial ® Tropical ®
Subtropical
Compare the Serra do Mar and the Western Ghats. Give one similarity.
Both force moist winds to rise
and cause orographic rainfall.
How have rivers helped create both the Amazon Plain and the Northern Plains?
By depositing sediments over
thousands of years.
Why does the eastern side of the Serra do Mar receive more rainfall than the
western side?
The eastern slopes receive
orographic rainfall while the
western side lies in the
rain-shadow region
Explain the chain of events linking Cabral's arrival to Brazil's independence.
Discovery ® Colonisation ®
Plantations ® Slavery ®
Economic growth ®
Independence
Using only latitude, explain why northern Brazil receives more direct sunlight than northern india
It lies closer to the Equator.
A company wants to establish an iron ore mine. Which physiographic region of
Brazil would you recommend and why?
Brazilian Highlands because
they are rich in mineral
resources.
A drought causes the Amazon River's discharge to fall dramatically. Predict two
likely impacts.
Reduced transport and
ecosystem damage.
Which factor would have the greatest impact on Brazil's rainfall if removed: Trade
Winds, the Amazon Rainforest, or the Brazil Current? Defend your answer.
Amazon Rainforest because
evapotranspiration recycles
moisture across much of Brazil.