Is it a coincidence or a really strong correlation why modern day countries in Europe that speak Romance languages are also the most Catholic and former regions of the Western Empire?

[LegateLivius]

I saw this post just now.

https://old.reddit.com/r/ancientrome/comments/1bed6er/why_do_romance_languages_have_so_strong/

And I admit I'm quite flattered someone linked two old discussions I made on this site!

Still its an intriguing question the OP makes. I already covered the correlation of Catholicism to former Roman territory in the links OP took from this site but I  never also realized how much of the former Western Roman Empire speaks romance languages! And how much the Romance family is so correlated with Catholicism!

 

So I'm wondering what people say about the topic? Particularly OP observation that most of the European colonial empires like France and Spain in addition to being devout Catholic strongholds and using a Romance language, also became the mightiest empires of their time? OP even insists in adding the UK as an example because of how much influence French and Latin had on the English language despite being Germanic and how English Christianity especially the Anglican Communion is so heavily modeled after the Roman Catholic Church, having the most similarity to Latin Rites than almost any other Protestant denomination out there. So he argues the British Empire is proof of the continuation of the impact Rome had on European civilization and that the British Empire is one of the direct descendants of Rome along with the French and Spanish Empires and the Kingdom of Brazil.

 

 

[caldrail]

I can't really see the British Empire as a descendant of the Roman one. English is not a Romance language, a clear indication of how significant the Anglo-Saxon migrations were, and the medieval French of the Normans has almost vanished. The subsequent Angevin Empire was lost too, the territories in France gradually conquered. The British Empire was a new construction starting from the 16th century with victories against a few European powers and the beginning of the colonial era.

[guidoLaMoto]

A) Correlation does not prove  cause & effect.

2) Romanization, including both linguistic and social/political tendencies, exhibited a dilution/diffusion effect with distance from the center. Catholicism came relatively late to outlying areas, so, less ingrained/more easily lost.

c) The obviously very successful organization of the Roman govt (emperor-senate-govenors-legionaires) translated readily to Pope/king-college of cardinals/privy council-bishops/dukes etc-priests/army. It's easier to modify/adapt an existing engine to a new application than it is to design a whole new engine from scratch.

4) The European countries that went on to build colonial empires were the ones that were organized and consolidated earlier. Italy and Germany were still fragmented along feudal lines until late in the 19th century.

Edited March 15 by guidoLaMoto