Pan-Latinism is an ideology that promotes the unification of the Romance-speaking peoples. Pan-Latinism first rose to prominence in France particularly from the influence of

Michel Chevalier Michel Chevalier (; 13 January 1806 – 18 November 1879) was a French engineer, statesman, economist and free market liberal. Biography Born in Limoges, Haute-Vienne, Chevalier studied at the ''École Polytechnique'', obtaining an engineering ...

(1806–1879) who contrasted the "

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

" peoples of the Americas with the "

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

" peoples there. Nineteenth-Century French writer Stendhal spoke of "Latinism" as an imperial idea that the Latins should rule over their non-Latin neighbours. It was later adopted by

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

, who declared support for the cultural unity of Latin peoples and presented France as the modern leader of the Latin peoples to justify French intervention in Mexican politics that led to the creation of the pro-French Second Mexican Empire. Sociologist writes that the medieval Italian poet

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

toyed with the idea of European domination by Latins in his treatise '' De Monarchia'', which celebrated the "world empire" of the Romans. In the aftermath of France's defeat in the

Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...

and the creation of a state of Germany, the French political theorist Gabriel Hanotaux rejected claims that the era of imperial dominance of the Latin peoples, particularly the French, was over and that the new era was one of imperial dominance of the

, Germanic and Slavic peoples. Hanotaux claimed that the Latin peoples had an imperial role to play in colonization of Africa, and that they should have imperial holdings including Africa and South America. The Anglo-Saxon peoples' imperial holdings should be North America, the Germanic peoples should have Central Europe, and the Slavic peoples should have Siberia. A democratic and confederal form of pan-Latinism arose through the influence of Occitan French figure Frédéric Mistral, who advocated regional autonomy for

Occitania Occitania is the historical region in Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France (except ...

in France. He also advocated pan-Latinism after he had contacted

Catalans Catalans ( Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; ; ; or ) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citizens of Catalonia, a nationality and autono ...

who supported autonomy of Catalonia alongside Latin unity. Mistral influenced Jean Charles-Brun, whose ''Le régionalisme'', in turn, impressed Mistral. Charles-Brun advocated an international Latinism and the creation of a democratic ''confédération latine'' ("Latin Confederation") but rejected proposals of a "Latin Empire".

References

Romance peoples {{history-stub

See also

References