Pan-Latinism is an ideology that promotes the unification of the

Romance-speaking The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...

peoples. Pan-Latinism first arose in 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 a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

" peoples of the Americas with the "

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

" peoples there. 19th century French writer

Stendhal Marie-Henri Beyle (; 23 January 1783 – 23 March 1842), better known by his pen name Stendhal (, ; ), was a 19th-century French writer. Best known for the novels ''Le Rouge et le Noir'' ('' The Red and the Black'', 1830) and ''La Chartreuse de ...

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 the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...

, 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 The Second Mexican Empire (), officially the Mexican Empire (), was a constitutional monarchy established in Mexico by Mexican monarchists in conjunction with the Second French Empire. The period is sometimes referred to as the Second French i ...

. Sociologist writes that the medieval Italian poet

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...

toyed with the idea of European domination by

Latins The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture during the Roman Republic. Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ...

in his treatise ''

De Monarchia ''Monarchia'', often called ''De Monarchia'' (, ; "(On) Monarchy"), is a Latin treatise on secular and religious power by Dante Alighieri, who wrote it between 1312 and 1313. With this text, the poet intervened in one of the most controversial ...

'', which celebrated the "world empire" of the Romans. In the aftermath of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the creation of a state of Germany, the French political theorist

Gabriel Hanotaux Albert Auguste Gabriel Hanotaux, known as Gabriel Hanotaux (19 November 1853 – 11 April 1944) was a French statesman and historian. Biography He was born at Beaurevoir in the ''département'' of Aisne. He studied history at the École des Cha ...

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 Joseph Étienne Frédéric Mistral (; oc, Josèp Estève Frederic Mistral, 8 September 1830 – 25 March 1914) was a French writer of Occitan literature and lexicographer of the Provençal form of the language. He received the 1904 Nobel P ...

, who advocated regional autonomy for

Occitania Occitania ( oc, Occitània , , or ) is the historical region in Western and Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes still used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasse ...

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

Catalans Catalans (Catalan, French and Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance ethnic group native to Catalonia, who speak Catalan. The current official category of "Catalans" is that of the citize ...

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

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Romance peoples {{history-stub

See also

References