Pan-Romanism

WeisSaul

Banned
Is it possible that out of the legacy of the Roman empire, a Pan-Roman movement could have arisen in the European Romance language speaking countries? Spain, Portugal, Romania (and Moldova), Italy, Corsica, France, Wallonia, and Switzerland.
 
I doubt it could happen, while they share a common linguistic heritage, I cannot see any of them unifying by the rise of Pan-Nationalism except for maybe Portugal and Spain or France and Wallonia.

Switzerland would not be included anyway, they are far too Germanic in culture.
 
Perhaps the Reformation succeeds in the entire Germanic and Slavic societies, leaving only Romance societies as Catholic. It would create a binding institution needed for pan-Romanism to emerge.
 

WeisSaul

Banned
The only Romance society that wasn't Catholic was Romania, which was relatively isolated from all the rest, even though Romanians apparently have the easiest time understanding all of the others.

French and Italian Switzerland also aren't too Germanized, are they?

Maybe the unification of "New Rome" is in stages? First smaller things like France and Wallonia, Spain and Portugal, and Italy and Istria. Switzerland gets partitioned between Germany, Italy, and France. Maybe after you have 3 countries, you can just unify the three into one?

Romania could just get lopped in later?
 
Perhaps the Reformation succeeds in the entire Germanic and Slavic societies, leaving only Romance societies as Catholic. It would create a binding institution needed for pan-Romanism to emerge.

If it were a Pan-Romanist people's movement with religion as a pretext, you've still got the issue of organising such a massive state with pre-1900 logistics, as well as coming up with some method to overcome any linguistic and cultural barriers, as well as sorting out the inevitably immense number of nationalists, regionalists et cetera. Unless it was an HRE-type state, where the head of state is the de jure ruler only, it would be extremely hard. That's for if it were some kind of revolution like the French Revolution. As somehow I don't see the monarchs of Europe unanimously agree to hand over their thrones to one guy (or giving them up to a Republic).

In terms of a "New Rome" in stages, I see a French victory in War of the Spanish Succession, and the subsequently massive Franco-Spanish Union could then go on to conquer Wallonia and Italy for whatever reason (being the de facto warlords of Western Europe, they could undoubtably manufacture a reason, following on from the religious clause, they could proclaim themselves the "Protector of all the Roman Christians"). Then they could proclaim a "New Roman Empire" or whatever. I doubt they would want anything to do with Romania though.

French and Italian Switzerland also aren't too Germanized, are they?
No, but they compromise about 30% (at the most) of Switzerland's population.
 
Last edited:
I think your best chance is to do this under French domination, starting with a Franco-Spanish. Have them win the war of the Spanish Succession is one such route. They could then invade Portugal during the mid-18th Cenutry and kick the Habsburgs out of Italy during the 19th, uniting the peninsular under their rule.
 

WeisSaul

Banned
Sounds plausible, and I'm guessing there'd be enough people in this to demographically and culturally conquer Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya in TTL.

Would the individual languages continue to exist, or would increased trade and travel between the many countries with very similar languages create a new language? Maybe everyone would just learn French, or the languages will all turn into French-south Romance languages hybrid?
------------
Also, couldn't Napoleon have unified the Western Romance speaking peoples into a single French-Roman Empire? He did have all the people required under his control. Just have him hit a rock along the way and force him to consolidate power into French/Italian/Romansh/ Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Portugal, and everything west of the Rhine.
 
Last edited:
Napoleon's empire's twin pillars were France and Italy, so he actually went somewhere close. A big Bourbon victory in the WotSS would do most of the trick, except for Romania. For that matter, don't forget Albanian Romania (and Latin America of course).
However, a "Latin Union" actually existed in 19th century, but collapsed over bickering between Italy and France and was bever really important. Another Latin Union indeed exists today but only as a cultural organization.
 
Top