IIRC, Napoleon III came up with that term, as a way of staking a claim to the Americas south of the US as in a separate sphere of influence to the US/Canada, and one in which the European continental powers may prevail. (He sent a Habsburg to be Emperor of Mexico, but I imagine he had a theory for why those German-speaking Viennese were more latin than teutonic.)
IIRC, Napoleon III came up with that term, as a way of staking a claim to the Americas south of the US as in a separate sphere of influence to the US/Canada, and one in which the European continental powers may prevail. (He sent a Habsburg to be Emperor of Mexico, but I imagine he had a theory for why those German-speaking Viennese were more latin than teutonic.)