Brazil is divided into federative units which have a certain degree of autonomy (self-government, self-regulation, and self-collection) and are endowed with their own government and constitution. There are 26 states (') and one federal district ('). The states are generally based on historical, conventional borders which have developed over time. The states are divided into municipalities, while the Federal District assumes the competences of both a state and a municipality.
Government
The government of each state of Brazil is divided into executive, legislative and judiciary branches.
The state executive branch is headed by a state governor and includes a vice governor, both elected by the citizens of the state. The governor appoints several secretaries of state (each one in charge of a given portfolio) and the state attorney-general.
All states and the Federal District are represented in the national congress, each with three senators and between eight and 70 deputies, depending on their population. The citizens of all states and the Federal District vote for these national representatives and for president and vice president.
History
thumb|220x220px|The States of Brazil, their respective flags, their state capitals, and their largest cities.
The present states of Brazil trace their history directly to the captaincies established by Portugal following the Treaty of Tordesillas which divided the World between Portugal and Spain.
The first administrative divisions of Brazil were the hereditary captaincies (capitanias hereditárias), stretches of land granted by the Portuguese Crown to noblemen or merchants with a charter to colonize the land. The first such captaincy was the island of São João, granted in 1504 to Fernão de Loronha. The continental land was divided into captaincies in 1534, generally following lines of latitude, although some followed meridians or diagonal lines. Each of the holders of these captaincies was referred to as a captain donatary (capitão donatário). The captaincies were to be inherited by the holders' descendants, but the Crown retained the power to reacquire them.
In 1549, the Portuguese Crown appointed Tomé de Sousa as the first governor-general of the vast Portuguese dominion in South America, known as the State of Brazil (Estado do Brasil). In 1621, the northern part of the dominion was detached, becoming a separate entity known as the State of Maranhão. However, captaincies continued existing under both states as regional administrations.
During the Iberian Union (1580–1640), which allowed Portuguese settlers to enter Spanish domains, the territory of Portuguese colonial domains in South America was more than doubled, with both states of Brazil and Maranhão greatly expanding westward. After the union ended, Portugal asserted its territorial claims, which Spain eventually accepted with the Treaty of Madrid in 1750. Several captaincies were created or merged during this period, in both the original and western domains, and some were returned to the Crown, becoming royal captaincies. Shortly after the war, the Brazilian constitution of 1946 returned Ponta Porã and Iguaçu to their original states. Guaporé was renamed Rondônia in 1956, and Rio Branco was renamed Roraima in 1962, while remaining territories along with Amapá and Fernando de Noronha. Acre became a state in 1962.
In 1960, the rectangular-shaped Distrito Federal was carved out of Goiás to contain the new capital, Brasília. The previous federal district became the state of Guanabara,
In 1977, the southern part of Mato Grosso became the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. In 1981, Rondônia became a state. The Brazilian constitution of 1988 created the state of Tocantins from the northern portion of Goiás, established Amapá and Roraima as states, and returned the archipelago of Fernando de Noronha to Pernambuco. The constitution thus ended all remaining territories, although it maintained the possibility of creating others in the future.
Proposed federative states
Proposed division of Pará
On 11 December 2011, a consultative referendum was held in the state of Pará about creating two new states from parts of it (Tapajós and Carajás, with the rest of the state remaining as Pará). Both proposals were rejected by about 66% of statewide voters, but reflecting a strong geographic split with over 90% approval by voters in the proposed breakaway regions and over 90% disapproval by those in the rest of the state.
Maps
<gallery widths="200px" perrow="3">
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1534.png|1534<br/>Captaincies of Brazil
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1574.png|1574<br/>The division of Brazil into two governments.
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1647.png|1647<br/>Dutch invasions of Brazil
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1709.png|1709<br/>Expansion and mergers
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1823.png|1822<br/>Imperial provinces
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1851.png|1850<br/>Division of the Grão-Pará province
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1889.png|1889<br/>States at the start of the republic
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_em_1943.png|1943<br/>Border territories
Image:Mapa_do_Brasil_atualmente.png|1988<br/>Current states
</gallery>
List
{|class=" wikitable sortable"
!rowspan=2|Flag and name
!rowspan=2|Code
!rowspan=2|Capital
!colspan=2|Area
!rowspan=2|Population<br/>
!colspan=2|Density
! rowspan="2" |Established
! rowspan="2" |HDI (2024)
|-
! !!
! !!
|-
| || AC || Rio Branco ||
|| ||
|1962
|0.754
|-
| || AL || Maceió ||
|| ||
|1817
|0.746
|-
| || AP || Macapá ||
|| ||
|1988
|0.759
|-
| || AM || Manaus ||
|| ||
|1850
|0.767
|-
| || BA || Salvador ||
|| ||
|1534
|0.759
|-
| || CE || Fortaleza ||
|| ||
|1799
|0.773
|-
| || DF || Brasília ||
|| ||
|1960
|0.866
|-
| || ES || Vitória ||
|| ||
|1810
|0.804
|-
| || GO || Goiânia ||
||||
|1748
|0.815
|-
| || MA || São Luís ||
|| ||
|1534
|0.745
|-
| || MT || Cuiabá ||
|| ||
|1748
|0.812
|-
| || MS || Campo Grande ||
|| ||
|1979
|0.797
|-
| || MG || Belo Horizonte ||
|| ||
|1720
|0.809
|-
| || PA || Belém ||
|| ||
|1616
|0.758
|-
| || PB || João Pessoa ||
|| ||
|1799
|0.760
|-
| || PR || Curitiba ||
|| ||
|1853
|0.822
|-
| || PE || Recife ||
|| ||
|1534
|0.767
|-
| || PI || Teresina ||
|| ||
|1811
|0.764
|-
| || RJ || Rio de Janeiro ||
|| ||
|1565
|0.819
|-
| || RN || Natal ||
|| ||
|1817
|0.778
|-
| || RS || Porto Alegre ||
|| ||
|1760
|0.818
|-
| || RO || Porto Velho ||
|| ||
|1982
|0.786
|-
| || RR || Boa Vista ||
|| ||
|1988
|0.780
|-
| || SC || Florianópolis ||
|| ||
|1821
|0.833
|-
| || SP || São Paulo ||
|| ||
|1709
|0.838
|-
| || SE || Aracaju ||
|| ||
|1820
|0.761
|-
| || TO || Palmas ||
|| ||
|1988
|0.797
|-
!
!BRA
!Brasília
!8,510,346
!3,285,863
!214,211,951
!61.6
!23.8
!1822
!0.805
|}
Approximate correspondence between historical divisions
{| class=wikitable style="font-size:90%; line-height:1.3; text-align:center"
|+Approximate correspondence between divisions in selected years
! rowspan=2 | Land of Brazil
! style=background:#AFA | State of Maranhão<br>and Grão-Pará
! rowspan=2 | State of Brazil
! rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Empire of Brazil
! rowspan=2 colspan=2 | United States of Brazil
! rowspan=2 colspan=3 | Federative Republic of Brazil
|-
! State of Brazil
|-
! 1534 !! 1654 !! 1775 !! 1822 !! 1853 !! 1889 !! 1943 !! 1967 !! 1977 !! 1988
|-
! rowspan=3 colspan=2 | captaincies !! rowspan=3 | captaincies<br>general
! rowspan=3 | provinces !! provinces
! colspan=5 | states
|-
! rowspan=2 style=background:#FFA | neutral<br>municipality
! rowspan=2 style=background:#FFA | federal<br>district
! colspan=3 style=background:#FFA | federal district
! rowspan=2 style=background:#FFA | federal<br>district
|-
! colspan=3 style=background:#AFF | territories
|-
| rowspan=5 style=background:#BBB | part of Tierra Firme<br>and New Castile
| colspan=3 style=background:#BBB | part of Peru
| colspan=2 style=background:#BBB | part of Bolivia
| style=background:#AFF | Acre || colspan=3 | Acre
|-
| rowspan=4 style=background:#AFA | Grão-Pará || rowspan=4 colspan=2 | Grão-Pará
| rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Amazonas || colspan=4 | Amazonas
|-
| style=background:#AFF | Rio Branco || colspan=2 style=background:#AFF | Roraima || Roraima
|-
| rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Pará || colspan=4 | Pará
|-
| colspan=3 style=background:#AFF | Amapá || Amapá
|-
| Maranhão (west) || rowspan="2" style="background:#AFA" | Maranhão || rowspan=2 | Maranhão || colspan=7 | Maranhão
|-
| Maranhão (east) || colspan=7 | Piauí
|-
| Ceará || style=background:#AFA | Ceará || rowspan=6 | Pernambuco || colspan=7 | Ceará
|-
| colspan=2 | Rio Grande|| colspan="7" | Rio Grande do Norte
|-
| Itamaracá || Paraíba || colspan=7 | Paraíba
|-
| colspan=2 | São João || rowspan=2 colspan=3 | Pernambuco || colspan=3 style=background:#AFF | Fernando de Noronha || rowspan=2 | Pernambuco
|-
| rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Pernambuco || colspan=3 | Pernambuco
|-
| colspan=7 | Alagoas
|-
| rowspan=2 colspan=2 style=height:3em | Baía de Todos os Santos || rowspan=5 | Bahia || colspan=7 | Sergipe
|-
| rowspan=3 colspan=7 | Bahia
|-
| colspan=2 | Ilhéus
|-
| colspan=2 | Porto Seguro
|-
| colspan=2 | Espírito Santo || colspan=7 | Espírito Santo
|-
| São Tomé || rowspan=2 colspan=3 | Rio de Janeiro || colspan=4 | Rio de Janeiro || rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Rio de Janeiro
|-
| rowspan=2 | São Vicente (north) || style=background:#FFA | Município Neutro || colspan=2 style=background:#FFA | Distrito Federal || Guanabara
|-
| rowspan=11 | São Vicente || colspan=8 | Minas Gerais
|-
| rowspan=6 style=background:#BBB | part of New Castile<br>and New Toledo
| rowspan=3 colspan=5 | Goiás || rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Goiás || Tocantins
|-
| Goiás
|-
| colspan=3 style=background:#FFA | Distrito Federal
|-
| rowspan=3 colspan=4 | Mato Grosso || style=background:#AFF | Guaporé || colspan=2 style=background:#AFF | Rondônia || Rondônia
|-
| Mato Grosso || rowspan=2 | Mato Grosso || colspan=2 | Mato Grosso
|-
| style=background:#AFF | Ponta Porã || colspan=2 | Mato Grosso do Sul
|-
| Santo Amaro || rowspan=4 colspan=2 | São Paulo || rowspan=2 colspan=6 style=height:3em | São Paulo
|-
| rowspan=3 | São Vicente (south)
|-
| rowspan=2 colspan=2 style=height:2.2em | Paraná || Paraná || rowspan=2 colspan=3 | Paraná
|-
| rowspan=2 style=background:#AFF | Iguaçu
|-
| rowspan=2 colspan=2 | Santana || rowspan=3 | Rio de Janeiro<br>(dependencies)
| rowspan=2 colspan=3 | Santa Catarina || rowspan=2 colspan=3 | Santa Catarina
|-
| Santa Catarina
|-
| rowspan=2 style=background:#BBB | part of New Andalusia
| rowspan=2 style=background:#BBB | part of Peru
| colspan=7 | Rio Grande do Sul
|-
| style=background:#BBB | part of Peru || Cisplatina || colspan=6 style=background:#BBB | Uruguay
|}
See also
- Brazil socio-geographic division
- List of Brazilian states by Human Development Index
- List of Brazilian states by murder rate
- List of Brazil state name etymologies
- Provinces of Brazil
- Regions of Brazil
References
External links
- Economic statistical data for Brazil's 26 states and federal district (in English, Portuguese, and Spanish)
- Map of Brazil, showing states and their standard time zones