North Region, Brazil

The North Region of Brazil (Portuguese: Região Norte do Brasil [ʁeʒiˈɐ̃w ˈnɔʁtʃi du bɾaˈziw]) is the largest region of Brazil, accounting for 45.27% of the national territory. It has the second-lowest population of any region in the country, and accounts for a minor percentage of the national GDP. The region is slightly larger than India and slightly smaller than the whole European Union. It comprises the states of Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, and Tocantins.

It has the lowest population density out of all the regions of Brazil, with only 4.5 inhabitants per km². Most of the population is centered in urban areas.

Belém International Airport and Manaus International Airport connect the North Region with many Brazilian cities and also operate some international flights. The region is home to the Federal University of Amazonas and the Federal University of Pará, among others.

The first inhabitants of the North Region, as in the rest of Brazil, were the Native Brazilians, who shared a diverse number of tribes and villages, from the pre-Columbian period until the arrival of the European people.

The Spaniards, among them Francisco de Orellana, organized exploratory expeditions by the Amazon River to know the region. After long journeys alongside Francisco de Orellana, Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés wrote a letter addressed to Cardinal Pedro Bembo in Venice, extolling the fauna and flora existing in the region at the time of the expedition.

The 17th century marked the arrival of the Portuguese people, where they built military strongholds to defend the region against the invasion of other peoples, in 1616, causing in the foundation of Belém do Pará. The richness of the Amazon Rainforest has also become interesting for the Portuguese Crown. With the Portuguese explorers, the Catholic missionaries came to the region, in order to catechize the natives. The natives were assembled by missionaries in villages, called missions, many of which gave birth to several cities, such as Borba and Óbidos.

Some of the Region's oldest towns: Bragança, Xapuri, Tefé, Natividade and Amapá. In order to work on rubber extraction, Brazilians from other states, mainly from the Northeast Region, moved to the region. Also many Japanese families came to work in the agricultural colonies.

During the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, military governments implemented a major plan to integrate the region with other regions of Brazil, including the construction of several highways (such as the BR-010), the installation of industries and the creation of the Free Economic Zone of Manaus.