Introduction
Rio de Janeiro is believed to be the second-largest city in Brazil in terms of both population and area falling behind only Sao Paolo. This city was the capital of Brazil for nearly two centuries when the country was a Portuguese colony from 1763 to 1822 the city was the center of the Portuguese Empire. When the county achieved independence from Portugal, Rio also remained the capital until 1960(Gilbert, 102).
Main body
The city is located at, 43 degrees 14 minutes west longitude, and 22 degrees, 54 minutes south latitude. The population of the city numbers approximately 6,136 652 people, it occupies an area of 1,182.3 square kilometers.
It should be mentioned that Rio de Janeiro was founded on March 1, 1565, by Portuguese aristocrat Estácio de Sá. After 1720 (when the gold and diamonds were found in Brazil), the city became by far the most important seaport in the Portuguese colonies. There were numerous attempts to invade the city by pirates but these efforts were of no use because Rio de Janeiro was always protected by the Portuguese troops.
Rio de Janeiro is usually divided into four parts. They are the Centro (the historic downtown), South Zone which is believed to be the main attraction for tourists, the North Zone which is a mostly residential area, and the West Zone.
As far as the demographics of the city is concerned we may say that the population density is approximately 4.781 inhabitants per square kilometer/ We may also speak of cultural and ethnic diversity in Rio de Janeiro, it is quite possible to mention the Portuguese community that is the oldest one. As for the indigenous people, we can say that they mostly assimilated into the Portuguese community. It should be taken into account that the black community plays a very important role almost half of the population is either black or half black.
As it has already been mentioned before Rio de Janeiro has always been an important seaport but since 1960 (the discovery of oil in Campos Basin) the city has attracted many international oil companies for instance we may mention branches of such companies as EBX, Shell, and Esso (Godfrey, 20). The industrial enterprises in the city produce foods, petroleum products, pharmaceuticals chemicals, metal products, ships, clothing, textiles, and furniture. Nevertheless, tourism is still considered to be the main source of revenue, especially during the famous Carnaval.
One of the major challenges that the city of Rio de Janeiro faces nowadays is the problem of poverty. Even though it is believed to be one of the worlds biggest metropolises some part of the population lives in very poor conditions, to say the least. This part of the population mostly leaves in slums or shanty houses naturally foreign tourists do not often see these parts of the city (Crowley, 128).
It stands to reason that such a social phenomenon as poverty always results in a high crime rate. For instance, in 2007 only the homicide rate was about 30 victims per week.
However, these problems can be resolved. Naturally, we cannot say that there is a ready-made solution for them, but maybe the geographical position of Rio de Janeiro should be fully utilized. First, the resources of the Reo seaport are not fully developed, as they should have been. Moreover, the oilfields can give many job sites.
Bibliography
Crowley, W. K..” Modeling the Latin American City”. Geographical Review 88.1: (1992) 127-130.
Gilbert, R. 1988. “City Profile: Rio de Janeiro”. Vintage Books.
Godfrey, B. J. “Modernizing the Brazilian City”. Geographical Review 81 1: (1991) 18-34.