Latins

The Latins (Latin and Italian: Latino (m.), Latina (f.), and Latini (pl.)) were originally an Italic tribe in ancient central Italy from Latium. As Roman power and colonization spread Helleno-Latin culture during the Roman Republic, Latins culturally "Romanized" or "Latinized" the rest of Italy, and the word Latin ceased to mean a particular people or ethnicity, acquiring a more legal and cultural sense. As the Roman Empire spread to include Spain, Portugal, France, and Romania, these joined Italy and Greece in becoming "Latin" and remain so to the present day. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain, Portugal and France began to build world empires in the Americas, Africa and the East Indies. By the mid-19th century, the former American colonies of these Latin European nations became known as Latin America.