The Giants of Their Realms Brazil and Mexico are both the giants of their geographic realms (de Blij and Muller 219,254). Mexico constitutes an entire geographic region of Middle America (200). The country of Brazil is also considered a single region in South America (239). Both of these regions have very large populations in comparison to the other regions of their realms. Mexico’s current population of 102 million people has more than doubled in size since 1970 (219). Brazil’s estimated population is currently near 167 million people (254). The populations of both regions are becoming increasingly more urban in character. At least seventy-four percent of Mexico’s population resides in cities or towns (220). Similarly in Brazil, eighty percent of the population lives in urban areas (Microsoft Encarta).Although both Mexico and Brazil are regions of very large urban populations, the ethnic make-up of the regions are quite distinct from each other. Beginning in the sixteenth century both regions came into contact with European nations. Mexico and Brazil both had populations of Amerindians before the Europeans arrived. In Mexico the Spanish would encounter the advanced civilizations of the Aztecs ruled by Montezuma (Suchlicki 26). The Aztec population has been estimated to be between 80,000 to 250,000. The Aztec people had built a great city at Tenochtitlan. The Aztec were advanced in their architectural abilities, their engineering accomplishments, and their culture (22). In Brazil the Amerindian population upon arrival of the Portuguese was fragmented into innumerable small tribes (Burns 17). There was no culture in Brazil when the Europeans arrived that can be compared to the Aztecs of Mexico (21). The fact that different European countries colonized Mexico and Brazil is most noticeable today in the languages of the countries. The languages of Brazil and Mexico are different. The official language of Brazil is Portu...
