Latin America

Interficio

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Virginia, USA
How did this come to be named after Latin? My parents asked me this and I had no answer.

The fact that Central America was called Latin America makes it difficult for me to find latin books in libraries and catalogs as I often encounter hispanic cookbooks, and dancing lessons when looking for Latin stuff.
 
 

cinefactus

Censor

  • Censor

  • Patronus

Location:
litore aureo
Isn't it because it was colonised by the Spanish and Portuguese?
 

QMF

Civis Illustris

  • Civis Illustris

Location:
Virginia, US
Cinefactus dixit:
Isn't it because it was colonised by the Spanish and Portuguese?
And the French to a lesser extent.

Edit: I've always been told that it's because there are multiple Latin-based languages spoken there. How it came to known as Latin America (that is, how that logic came to pass) is beyond me, however.
 

Akela

sum

  • Princeps Senatus

Location:
BC
What a good question, Interficio. Thank you for asking it
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

QMF dixit:
multiple Latin-based languages spoken there. How it came to known as Latin America
Well, loads of Romance languages are spoken there, but naming it Romance America sounds slightly ambiguous :D
 

Interficio

Civis Illustris

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Location:
Virginia, USA
Yeah but why Latin? Why call hispanic people Latinos?

Why not Spanish America or Hispanic America and call people Hispanic (like they do) or Hispano (which coincidentally is Hispanic in Spanish)

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Optime! I am the 10th greatest poster as of now!
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

Because it's not only Spanish, but also Portuguese that is spoken in Latin America I suppose (and, as QMF said, there was some French influence as well).
 

Interficio

Civis Illustris

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Location:
Virginia, USA
HAHA, I just disovered this from almost two years ago! And I think I have a better answer now...

Basically the area of Latin america was called Spanish America well until the 1800's after independence. However, I recall in AP World History, my tecaher and a video stating that Germany tried to reach out for support from formerly-Spanish America, recalling that they both have bonds to the ancient classical culture, which then led to the name of Latin America, because of all the common bonds linking them to Roman classical civilization in one way or another. I can't for the life of me, recall why the germans wanted support.... Could it have been WWI? If not that, then WWII or the partition of Africa in the 1880's.... although those are very dubious...
 

Interficio

Civis Illustris

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Location:
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WAIT! I was completely off! I just recalled something else and of course Wikipedia helped to verify the information. It was Napoleon III of France who urged support due to common Latin bonds to classical civilization so he could manipulate Mexico.

"The term Latin America was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico, as a way to include France among countries with influence in America and to exclude Anglophone countries, and played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship of the region with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area, and install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.[10]"
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
Is the Canadian province of Quebec a part of Latin America?
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Despite the fact that much of Quebec's population speak a Latin-derived language, it is not geopolitically a part of Latin America.
 

Interficio

Civis Illustris

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Location:
Virginia, USA
....What was the point of that? I'm saying that France used those connections to coerce Latin America under its grasp, which lef to the name "Latin America." ....
 
B

Bitmap

Guest

wow ... all the scrolling ... for such a ... striking ... answer
 
 

Matthaeus

Vemortuicida strenuus

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Location:
Varsovia
LOL
 

JaimeB

Civis Illustris

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Location:
San Francisco, CA
You can call it Ibero-America if you want to exclude the places where English, Dutch, or French is spoken; then you are left with only hispanophone and lusophone countries.
 

Iohannes Aurum

Technicus Auxiliarius

  • Technicus Auxiliarius

Location:
Torontum, Ontario, Canada
Yes, geopoliticians should adopt the term Ibero-America, so to prevent confusion over the inclusion of French or Latin.

If geopoliticians adopted the term Ibero-America, then there would be no more assumptions by people unfamiliar with the term Latin America.
 
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Peter00

Guest

I would give this as an explanation. The term Latin America was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico. It was a way to include France among countries with influence in America and to exclude Anglophone countries, and played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship of the region with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area, and install Maximilian as emperor of Mexico.[10]"
 

Akela

sum

  • Princeps Senatus

Location:
BC
/Offtopic: Welcome to the forum, Peter :hi:
 

root

Member

Interficio dixit:
How did this come to be named after Latin? My parents asked me this and I had no answer.

The fact that Central America was called Latin America makes it difficult for me to find latin books in libraries and catalogs as I often encounter hispanic cookbooks, and dancing lessons when looking for Latin stuff.
I would say the fact behind your difficulty is not the name Latin America, which by the way, encompasses all of South America and part of North America too, but the faulty library catalog. Because, in "latin books", latin = of or relating to the latin language. Whereas, in "Latin America", latin = of or relating to the latin people. Where are those libraries located, I dare ask?

Latin America, I concede, is not the most appropriate name for that mass of land, and one of the users in this forum was clever when he pointed out that Iberoamerica is a more suitable term. But consider the name given by your forefathers to the country where you live. They have expropriated the name of a whole continent, which extends itself almost from one pole to the other. And now Europeans use that word to refer not to a continent but to a single country. Brazilians understood it better, when they called their nation United States of Brazil.

The discovery, exploration, conquest and colonization of these lands was made by people coming from romance language speaking countries, long before a single germanic people touched its costs. In particular, Spaniards, in their thrust, almost embraced the whole of the two Americas, the enormous quantity of cities having Spanish names in the U.S. giving testimony to it (only consider how many cities bearing names beginning with "St", "San" and "Santa" you have on the west cost; not a surprise if one thinks the very name of the state that contains most of them, California, is of Spanish extraction).

Those romance languages descend from Latin, and the people who speak them are very often called Latins. What do you do if you want to refer to Spaniards, Frechmen, Italians collectively? You can do as I did above. But it's much more comfortable to use "Latins". So, historical reasons left aside, the name Latin America does not seem that inappropriate after all, Spaniards and Portuguese being Latins.
 

Mapaxe

New Member

Location:
Queretaro, Mexico
It would have been nice if Maximilian had stayed in power, he was more liberal, intelligent and less corrupted than other mexican politicians...

Nice to know by the way
 

nooij

New Member

I personally think the reason for a large part of South America and America to be called "Latin America" is due to the considerable linguistic difference between the northern part and the southern part of the Americas. But then again, Quebec is not included in "Latin America", so that leaves my argument useless, although one might argue that the French speakers of Canada are a minority and that Canada as a whole is considered a part of the so-called "Germanic America".
 
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