Why is latin america called latin america?

Question

Why is latin america called latin america?

Answer 1

Umm why is the sky blue? Who knows! Why do you even care bout dumb stuff like that?

Answer 2

First, the WHOLE continent on America got its name from the Italian who first sighted land back in 1492, his name was Amerigo Vespucci, was part of Columbus crew.

Latin America is called Latin because 97% of the territories that form that part of the continent speak Latino (Spanish).

Answer 3

From Wikipedia:

"Originally a political term, Amerique Latine was coined by French emperor Napoleon III, who cited Amerique Latine and Indochine as goals for expansion during his reign. While the term helped him stake a claim to those territories, it eventually came to embody those parts of the Americas that speak Romance languages initially brought by settlers from Spain, Portugal and, to a minor extent, France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. An alternate etymology points to Michel Chevalier, who mentioned the term in 1836. [2]

In the United States, the term was not used until the 1890s, and did not become a common descriptor of the region until early in the twentieth century. Before then, Spanish America was more commonly used. [3]"

Technically speaking Latin America are all the countries in America that speak romance-languages that come from Latin; (Spanish, Portuguese or French), however the term is more widely used for American countries that speak Spanish, and Portuguese since these two languages are very similar and represent more the latin culture. I don't think French-speaking countries consider themselves "latin".

Officially speaking, Latin American countries include Mexico (which is part of North America, although everybody makes the mistake of putting it in Central America), all the countries of Central America except Belize (which has English as its main language), all countries in South America except for Suriname (Dutch) and Guyana (English). It also includes all the Spanish and French-speaking countries of the Caribbean, there are no Portuguese-speaking countries in the caribbean islands.

Answer 4

Check this out.

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pp...

Answer 5

because what you called latin america was first discovered by countries with a strong heritage from the roman empire, where latin was spoken (Spain and Portugal). therefore, there are basically 2 languages spoken in latin america: spanish and portuguese, both come form latin.

many ppl think the word latino has to do with natives, but actually it has to do with europeans (spanish, italians, french, etc.) they are also latinos!