the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade (1204), two groups of "Franks" (a term used by the Byzantines to refer to Catholic Western Europeans) undertook the occupation of the Morea. They created the Principality of Achaea, a largely Greek-inhabited statelet ruled by a Latin (Western) autocrat. In referring to the Peloponnese, they followed local practice and used the name "Morea".

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