Following the spread of Christianity, it came to indicate the Catholics of the Latin Church, especially those following Western liturgical rites.
The Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire ended in AD 476, while the Greek-speaking eastern half survived on until 1453.
Nonetheless, it did not share this negative connotation in the West, where many self-identified with the term, such as Petrarch, when he states "Sumus enim non greci, non barbari, sed itali et latini."
The term Latin Europe is sometimes used in reference to European nations and regions inhabited by Romance-speaking people.
[18] The term is usually used to refer to Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Hispanic America and Brazil.
[20][21][22][23] Many of the present-day independent states of Africa have main official languages that are Romance, as a result of colonization by Romance-speaking European nations in the 19th century.