Anti-Latin race-based nationalism in early twentieth-century France: An examination of Robert Pelletier’s pan-Celtic and Slavophile journals

Abstract

In the late nineteenth century, several pan-nationalist movements – pan-Germanism, pan-Slavism, pan-Latinism, pan-Celticism – arose in Europe. In France, pan-Latinism and pan-Celticism promoted competing visions of the country’s culture, respectively emphasizing its Latin and Celtic legacies. Two journals published in the 1910s, L’Étendard celtique and Revue des nations were founded by the writer Robert Pelletier to advance pan-Celticism. Their purpose was twofold: to advocate a return to France’s Celtic traditions and to promote the idea of a ‘racial’ link between Celts and Slavs. Calling for a ‘Celtic–Slavic’ alliance, these Slavophile journals expressed solidarity with oppressed Slavic peoples, especially in the context of the Balkan Wars. Pelletier’s promotion of pan-Celticism and pan-Slavism as two affiliated currents stemmed from both his rejection of pan-Latinism and his hope that connecting with the powerful pan-Slavic movement could facilitate French pan-Celticism’s emergence on the European stage.