Morea

The Morea (Greek: Μωρέας or Μωριάς, French: Morée, Italian: Morea, Turkish: Mora) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, and by the Republic of Venice for the short-lived Kingdom of the Morea.

There is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name "Morea", which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles.

Traditionally scholars thought the name originated from the word morea (μορέα), meaning morus or mulberry, a tree which, though known in the region from the ancient times, gained value after the 6th century, when silkworms were smuggled from China to Byzantium.

The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes "from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf."

After the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade (1204), two groups of Franks 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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