What is "mediterraneanism"

Mediterraneanism is an ideology that claims that there are distinctive characteristics that Mediterranean cultures have in common.

Giuseppe Sergi asserted that the Mediterranean race was "the greatest race[...] derived neither from the black nor white people[...] an autonomous stock in the human family." Italian Fascism initially adhered strongly to a similar version of Mediterraneanism that claimed a bond existed between all Mediterranean cultures and Mediterranean peoples, often placing Mediterranean people and cultures above other cultures, such as Nordic cultures. This form of Mediterraneanism was partially a response to the then-popular Nordicist racial theory, a theory common in Northwestern Europe, Northern Europe, North America, Australia, Nazi Germany and Germanic Europe which categorized Mediterranean people as inferior to Nordic or Northwestern European people.

Since the end of the Cold War, Mediterraeanism or Mediterranean regionalism refers to the existence of a shared culture in the Mediterranean. It is a term that has become widespread in marketing lingo and the branding of restaurants.