The Frangokratia (Greek: Φραγκοκρατία, lit. "Francocracy", "rule of the Franks"), also known as Latinokratia (Greek: Λατινοκρατία, "rule of the Latins") is the period in Greek history after the Fourth Crusade (1204), when a number of Western European Crusader states were established in Greece, on the territory of the dissolved Byzantine Empire. The term derives from the fact that Orthodox Greeks (and most peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean) called the Catholic Westerners "Latins" or "Franks". The span of the Frangokratia period is different for every region: the political situation was highly volatile, as the Frankish states were fragmented and changed hands, and in many cases were re-conquered by the Greek successor states. With the exception of the Ionian Islands and some isolated forts which remained in Venetian hands, the final end of the Frangokratia in the Greek lands came with the Ottoman conquest in the 14th-16th centuries, which ushered in the period known as "Tourkokratia" (see Ottoman Greece).
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