<P> However, in France the term Latin America was used with the opposite intention . It was supported by the French Empire of Napoleon III during the French invasion of Mexico as a way to include France among countries with influence in the Americas and to exclude Anglophone countries . It played a role in his campaign to imply cultural kinship of the region with France, transform France into a cultural and political leader of the area, and install Maximilian of Habsburg as emperor of the Second Mexican Empire . This term was also used in 1861 by French scholars in La revue des races Latines, a magazine dedicated to the Pan-Latinism movement . </P> <Ul> <Li> Latin America generally refers to territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico . Latin America is, therefore, defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires . By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero - America ("Iberian America"). </Li> <Li> The term is sometimes used more broadly to refer to all of the Americas south of the United States, thus including the Guianas, the Anglophone Caribbean (and Belize); the Francophone Caribbean; and the Dutch Caribbean . This definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects (see, for example, dependency theory). As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead, as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas . </Li> <Li> In a more literal definition, which is close to the semantic origin, Latin America designates countries in the Americas where a Romance language (a language derived from Latin) predominates: Spanish, Portuguese, French, and the creole languages based upon these . In this definition, Quebec would be classified as part of Latin America . </Li> </Ul> <Li> Latin America generally refers to territories in the Americas where the Spanish or Portuguese languages prevail: Mexico, most of Central and South America, and in the Caribbean, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Puerto Rico . Latin America is, therefore, defined as all those parts of the Americas that were once part of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires . By this definition, Latin America is coterminous with Ibero - America ("Iberian America"). </Li> <Li> The term is sometimes used more broadly to refer to all of the Americas south of the United States, thus including the Guianas, the Anglophone Caribbean (and Belize); the Francophone Caribbean; and the Dutch Caribbean . This definition emphasizes a similar socioeconomic history of the region, which was characterized by formal or informal colonialism, rather than cultural aspects (see, for example, dependency theory). As such, some sources avoid this oversimplification by using the phrase "Latin America and the Caribbean" instead, as in the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas . </Li>

Is latin america and central america the same thing