This polygon shapefile contains the state boundaries of Brazil in 1940. These data were created using a custom World Polyconic projection. This layer is part of the Evolução da divisão territorial do Brasil 1872 - 2010 dataset, a collection of data representing the evolution of Brazilian states, municipalities and cities. This dataset is intended for researchers, students, and policy makers for reference and mapping purposes, and may be used for basic applications such as viewing, querying, and map output production, or to provide a basemap to support graphical overlays and analysis with other spatial data. This layer is presented in the WGS84 coordinate system for web display purposes. Downloadable data are provided in native coordinate system or projection.