Brazil has many problems that keep it from becoming a superpower. In the future though with the technology being developed it may be able to overcome these problems. If Brazil is compared to America, America is almost perfect for geography as for Brazil there are many things stopping its growth. The question is whether Brazil can become a superpower like America.
America was set up almost perfectly when it was becoming a united nation. At first it was split in almost three sections. The first section was not very fertile for growing but they were in an area that had lots of lumber and fishing. The second section had very good soil that grows crops along with navigable rivers giving it effective ways to ship goods. Lastly the third section was spilt in half by a fall line this is where hard rocky soil meets the good soft soil. So, there will be navigable rivers below the fall line and rocky waterfalls above. With this in mind most of the cities in the third section sit almost directly on the fall line. They did this because of the navigable rivers but they were also far inland providing protection.
With these three sections working together they had almost all they needed. As America slowly grew bigger it had access to two major rivers that were navigable so they had easy shipment ways. The biggest reason it’s a superpower though is that it was hard to reach so attacks were difficult. The other superpowers were almost an entire ocean away making it very expensive to get supplies over there and they lose power. With this the neighboring countries had very little power and had bad roads making it hard for transportation and they couldn't grow stuff very well. All these put together are what made America the superpower it is today.
Brazil, however, was not set up like the United States they have many geographical problems that are prohibiting them from growing into a superpower. The first big problem is that a big chunk of the country is land that can’t really be used. With the amazon being hard to get to with no good roads and no farming it is hard to do anything with the land. Another big chunk of land the Arzoto, is an area of flat land that appears perfect for growing, except the soil is to acidic so whenever they tried to grow anything, it would die. These two big chunks of land make up a lot of the area. With only a little area to grow food they were shipping in more food than they were exporting so they were losing money.
Another problem that needs to be looked at is all the people concentrated on the little area of coastal land they had. The problem is that the coastal land is very mountainous and rocky. So, there are all these big cities that are surrounded by mountains this leaves little room for growth and expansion. Also, there transportation is very bad they have few roads and the few they do have are not designed well. When they try to build the roads its very expensive and they are not that rich of a country. It's hard to widen the roadways there.
The real question is whether they can overcome their problems and become a superpower. They overcame some problems. The land with acidic soil only needed phosphorus and lime to lower the acidity so now they can grow plants there. In addition, they figured out they could grow soybeans, which is why they grow 30 percent of the world's soybean production. With the advancements in technology, I think they can achieve growth and get closer to becoming a superpower.
Many problems in Brazil are keeping it from becoming a superpower. With the technology and looking at the United States to help them overcome their problems they could start to grow. They have started to overcome the problems and are becoming a higher power. What they need to do is find ways to get past the big problems like the bad roads and spreading the people out. With that in mind, I think that if they try, they can become a superpower in the near future.
References
Britannica (2018, March 30). Brazil. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/place/Brazil
Mateus (2018, July 18). Brazil's Geography Problem Legendado. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ijbIMtgAfE
Wendover Productions (2017, August 15). How Geography Gave the U.S. Power. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-WO-c9xHms&t=552s