La Morea Franca tra XIII e XV secolo

After the capture of Constantinople in 1204, the Crusaders founded a lot of states in the main Byzantine territories: in Thrace, in continental Greece, in the Aegean Islands and even in Asia Minor. Most of the Crusaders, after the fall of the city, returned to their home country; however, some of them remained in the new territories to establish their own domination over local populations and defend their new possessions, thus renouncing their families and the political and economic relations they had in the West. Among the various realities that have been created, an interesting role is played by the Principality of Acaia, whose domain extended across the Morea region (the medieval Peloponnese). But what were the repercussions of the new domination on population and on economic life? What were the consequences of their arrival on the pre-existing settlements? Did their presence leave material traces? What kind of trace? The present study attempts to identify, on the basis of published data, the ways in which the Frankish elite represented itself in a foreign territory with a socio-cultural underlayer completely different from that of their land of origin.