Pan-Latinism is an ideology that promotes the unification of the Romance peoples.
History
It has been claimed that pan-Latinism originated in Italy in the medieval era with Italian poetDante Alighieri who spoke in favour of the idea in an imperial form of world or at least European domination by Latins. The term "pan-Latinism" was coined by Torres de Caicedo. Pan-Latinism originated on the idea of a common Latin race. This united the Italic peoples of Latin Europe with the peoples of the newly formed Latin America. Pan-Latinism first arose in prominence in France particularly from the influence of Michel Chevalier who contrasted the "Latin" peoples of the Americas with the "Anglo-Saxon" peoples there. 19th centuryFrench writerStendhal spoke of "Latinism" as an imperial idea that the Latins should rule over their non-Latin neighbours. It was later adopted by Napoleon III, who declared support for the cultural unity of Latin peoples and presented France as the modern leader of the Latin peoples to justifyFrench intervention in Mexican politics that led to the creation of the pro-French Second Mexican Empire. In the aftermath of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the creation of a state of Germany, French political theoristGabriel Hanotaux rejected claims that the era of imperial dominance of the Latin peoples and the French in particular, was over and that the new era was one of imperial dominance of the Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, and Slavic peoples. Hanotaux claimed that the Latin peoples had an imperial role to play in colonization of Africa, and claimed that Latin peoples' imperial holdings should include Africa and South America while the Anglo-Saxon people's imperial holding would be North America, the Germanic peoples' would be Central Europe, and the Slavic peoples' would be 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 in France, also advocated pan-Latinism after contacting Catalans who supported autonomy of Catalonia alongside Latin unity. Mistral influenced Jean Charles-Brun, whom had impressed Mistral Le Régionalisme. Charles-Brun advocated an international Latinism and the creation of a democratic confédération latine while rejecting Latin imperialist proposals of a "Latin Empire". Pan-Latinism was an important component of Italian Fascism that was used alongside Romanitas to promote Italianracial superiority.
