Craig R Meyer

01:02 pm - South American Political Geography

I notice that there are many medium-sized Spanish-speaking countries (Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, etc), but just one great big Portugese-speaking country (Brazil).

I wonder why that is.

My first guess is that it's relatively flat (no Andes mountains), and that the huge Amazon river system helps tie all those zillions of square miles together.

But there's surely more to it than that, like maybe something in the political history of the joint, or how the Portugese organized things differently/better than the the Spaniards did. Huh.