Why is Portuguese spoken in Brazil, while the rest of the continent speaks Spani

[getmoney51]

Brazilians speak Portuguese, because their country is a former Portuguese colony. For the country was discovered by the expedition led by Pedro Alvares Cabral [1467/1468/1469? - c. 1520], on April 21, 1500. But colonization by Portugal was the exception on the continent. For much of the rest of South America was settled under the commands and direction of the Spanish monarchy and the Spanish conquerors of the New World.

[sdecaro558]

I'm curious as to how the dialects on the rest of the continent are.  Is it all the same Spanish, or can you move from country to country and have different dialects spoken?  I remember a friend of mine talking about how she went to Germany and had some friends in the city, some friends in a very rural area.  Both sets of friends spoke German, but it was different - so different that they could not speak German to each other and understand it.

[ShadeTree]

In Brasil they actually speak Brazilian Portuguese. Which differs from Portuguese spoken in Portugal. However, both forms of Portuguese are similar(ish) to Spanish. However, Spanish too varies from country to country and can even vary within a single country. Every country has different dialects or even different languages spoken in specific parts of the country (take Finland for example, with the Sami languages). For the most part, dialects can be understood by those who speak the same language (Spanish for example) but if it's a completely different language (or a blend of languages) then they can't converse with each other (see Finland or even the Faroe Islands).