The Latins were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Latin culture, Latins came to mean mostly unified Italic people and the Latin-speaking people of Dacia, Iberia, Illyria, and Gaul whose land was settled by Latin colonists. In the late 15th–16th centuries, a millennium after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Portugal and Spain began to create world empires. In consequence, by the mid-19th century, the former American colonies of these nations became known as Latin America and this region's inhabitants as Latin Americans. that were eventually annexed by Rome to form "New Latium". The Alban Hills, a region of early Latin settlement and the site of the Latiar, the most important Latin communal festival, are located under the "U" in. The region's two main lakes, Nemi and Albanus, are visible under the "I". The leading Latin city-states of Rome, Tibur, Praeneste, Ardea and Gabii are shown.
Antiquity
The Latins were an ancient Italic people of the Latium region in central Italy, in the 1st millennium BC. Although they lived in independent city-states, they spoke a common language, held common religious beliefs, and shared a sense of kinship, expressed in the myth that all Latins descend from Latinus. Latinus was worshiped on Mons Albanus during an annual festival attended by all Latins, including those from Rome, one of the Latin states. The Latin cities extended common rights of residence and trade to one another. Rome's territorial ambitions united the rest of the Latins against it in 341 BC, but in the end Rome won in 338 BC. Consequently, some of the Latin states were incorporated within the Roman state, and their inhabitants were given full Roman citizenship. Others became Roman allies and enjoyed certain privileges.
Middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, many Europeans held on to the "Latin" identity, more specifically, in the sense of the Romans, as members of the Empire. In the Eastern Roman Empire, and the broader Greek-Orthodox world, Latins was a synonym for all people who followed Roman Catholic Christianity. It was generally a negative characterization, especially after the 1054 schism. Latins is still used by the Orthodox church communities, but only in a theological context. The Holy Roman Empire was founded centuries after the fall of Rome but brandished the name of the Roman people and honoured the king with the title "King of the Romans". Despite this, the Holy Roman Empire was largely a Germanic affair with German kings, although its territory was considerably greater than present-day Germany.
Of all world regions, the Americas have been most significantly influenced by Romance-speaking European countries in regards to culture, language, religion, and genetic contribution to the population. The Latin European-influenced region of the Americas came to be called Latin America in the 19th century. The FrenchEmperor Napoleon III is often credited with this naming. The term is usually used to refer to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Hispanic America and Brazil. The majority of Latin Americans have Latin European ancestry, notably Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Romanian.
