Frankokratia

The Frankish Occupation (Greek: Φραγκοκρατία, romanized: Frankokratia; anglicized as 'Francocracy'), also known as the Latin Occupation (Λατινοκρατία, Latinokratía) and, for the Venetian domains, Venetian Occupation (Βενετοκρατία / Ενετοκρατία, Venetokratía / Enetokratía), was the period in Greek history after the Fourth Crusade (1204), when a number of primarily French and Italian states were established by the Partitio terrarum imperii Romaniae on the territory of the partitioned Byzantine Empire.

With the exception of the Ionian Islands and some islands or forts which remained in Venetian hands until the turn of the 19th century, the end of the Frankokratia in most Greek lands came with the Ottoman conquest, chiefly in the 14th to 17th centuries, which ushered in the period known as "Tourkokratia" ("rule of the Turks"; see Ottoman Greece).

Its territories were gradually reduced to little more than the capital, which was eventually captured by the Empire of Nicaea under the rule of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1261.

Genoese attempts to occupy Corfu and Crete in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade were thwarted by the Venetians.

It was only during the 14th century, exploiting the terminal decline of the Byzantine Empire under the Palaiologos dynasty, and often in agreement with the weakened Byzantine rulers, that various Genoese nobles established domains in the northeastern Aegean: The Republic of Venice accumulated several possessions in Greece, which formed part of its Stato da Màr.