Duchy of the Archipelago The Duchy of the Archipelago ( , ) or also Duchy of Naxos ( , ) or Duchy of the Aegean ( , ) was a maritime state created by Venetian interests in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea , in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade , centered on the islands of Naxos and Paros . Background and establishment of the Duchy . The Italian city states , especially the Republic of Genoa , Pisa , and the Republic of Venice , had been interested in the islands of the Aegean long before the Fourth Crusade . There were Italian trading colonies in Constantinople and Italian pirates frequently attacked settlements in the Aegean in the 12th century . After the collapse and partitioning of the Byzantine Empire in 1204 , in which the Venetians played a major role , Venetian interests in the Aegean could be more thoroughly realized . The Duchy of the Archipelago was created in 1207 by Marco Sanudo , a participant in the Crusade and a nephew of the former Venetian doge Enrico Dandolo , who had led the Venetian fleet to Constantinople . This was an independent venture , without the consent of the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders . Sanudo was accompanied by Marino Dandolo and Andrea and Geremia Ghisi ( as well as Filocalo Navigajoso ? ) . He arranged for the loan of eight galley s from the Venetian Arsenal , set anchor in the harbor of Potamidides , in the southwest of Naxos , and largely captured the island . The Greek Orthodox Naxiotes continued to resist , however , and established a base inland , around the fortress of Apalyros / Apalire . The latter fell to Sanudo after five or six weeks ' siege , despite the assistance rendered to the Greeks by the Genoese , Venice ' s main competitors . With the entire island occupied in 1210 , Sanudo and his associates soon conquered Melos and the rest of the islands of the Cyclades , and he established himself as " Duke of Naxia " , or " Duke of the Archipelago " , with his headquarters on Naxos . Sanudo rebuilt a strong fortress and divided the island into 56 provinces , which he shared out as fiefs among the leaders of his men , most of whom were highly autonomous and apparently paid their own expenses . Navigaojso had been granted his island domain by Henry of Flanders and was technically vassal of the Latin Empire ; Sanudo himself recognized the Latin Empire ' s authority rather than making the Duchy a vassal of Venice . The conqueror himself ruled for twenty years ( 1207 – 27 ) . He held in his personal possession Paros , Antiparos , Melos , Sifnos , Kythnos , Ios , Amorgos , Kimolos , Sikinos , Syros , and Pholegandros . Sanudo ' s fellow crusaders conquered lordships of their own , sometimes as vassals of Sanudo like Dandolo for Andros . Although they are often considered to have become Sanudo ' s vassals as well , the Ghisi brothers , who held Tinos , Mykonos , and the Northern Sporades ( Skiathos , Skyros , Skopelos ) never recognized the suzerainty of Sanudo . Instead , like him they were directly vassals of the Latin Emperors . Some families thought earlier to have settled at this time in the islands ( Querini , Barozzi ) were in fact established in the 14th century . Further south , Kythera ( or " Cerigo " ) , held by Marco Venier , and Antikythera ( or " Cerigotto " ) , held by Jacopo Viaro chose to become vassals of Venice . Administration , faith and economics . The institution of European feudalism caused little disruption to the Byzantine islanders who were familiar with the rights of a landowner class under the Byzantine system of the " pronoia " . The significant legal distinctions between the Byzantine " pronoia " and feudalism were of little immediate consequence to those who farmed the land or fished the waters in question . In most cases , they local population submitted relatively peacefully with their new Venetian lords . Sanudo and his successors prudently followed a conciliatory course with their Byzantine subjects , granting even fiefs to certain among them , in an effort to bind them to the dynasty . The Venetians brought the Catholic Church with them , but , as they were a minority of habitually absentee landowners , most of the population remained Greek Orthodox . Marco Sanudo himself established a Latin archbishopric on Naxos , but in contrast to his successors did not attempt to forcibly convert the Greek Orthodox majority . These moves consisted primarily in imposing restrictions on Orthodox clergy and the exclusion of Orthodox Christians from positions of authority . Thus , the denominational division between Catholics and Orthodox gradually became a social division , with the Catholic ruling classes living in the towns on the islands and the Orthodox predominating in the countryside . The major concerns of the Venetians in the Duchy were the valuable trade routes with the larger islands off of Anatolia , which they could now control ; although those islands themselves remained part of the Latin Empire , and later the restored Byzantine Empire , until taken by the Ottoman Empire in the 14th century . Aside from providing safe traveling routes to Venetian ships , the Venetians also exported to Venice corundum and marble , which they mined on Naxos . Certain Latin feudal rights survived in the island of Naxos and elsewhere until they were abrogated in 1720 by the Ottomans . Later history . The " Annals " of the Latin Archipelago center on the family histories of Sanudo and Dandolo , Ghisi , Crispo and Sommaripa , Venier and Quirini , Barozzi and Gozzadini . Twenty - one dukes of the two dynasties ruled the Archipelago , successively as vassals of the Latin Emperors at Constantinople , of the Villehardouin dynasty of princes of Achaea , of the Angevins of the Kingdom of Naples ( in 1278 ) , and after 1418 of the Republic of Venice . In 1248 , the Duchy was nominally granted to William of Villehardouin , Prince of Achaea . Marco II Sanudo lost many of the islands , except Naxos and Paros , to the forces of the renewed Byzantine Empire under the admiral Licario in the late 13th century . The Byzantine revival was to prove short - lived though , as they relinquished control of their gains in 1310 . In 1317 the Catalan Grand Company raided the remnants of the Duchy ; in 1383 , the Crispo family led an armed insurrection and overthrew Sanudo ' s heirs as Dukes of Archipelago . Under the Crispo dukes , social order and agriculture decayed , and piracy became dominant . Collapse and Ottoman conquest . Before the last Latin Christian duke , Jacopo IV Crispo , was deposed in 1566 by Ottoman Sultan Selim II , he was already paying the Sultan tribute . The Sultan ' s appointed representative , the last Duke of Archipelago ( 1566 – 79 ) was a Portuguese Jew ( " Marrano " ) , Joseph Nasi . Latin Christian rule was not entirely removed after that date : the Gozzadini family in Bologna survived as lords of Siphnos and other little islands in the Cyclades until 1617 , and the island of Tenos remained Venetian until 1714 . The last Venetian ports in Morea ( the Peloponnese ) were captured in 1718 . Gaspar Graziani , a Dalmatian nobleman , was awarded the title of " Duke of the Archipelago " in 1616 , but the island was again under direct Ottoman rule at the end of 1617 ; he was the last to hold the title . Other Venetian territories in the Aegean . The Venetians controlled other islands as colonies , not as part of the Duchy or the Latin Empire . They bought Crete from Boniface of Montferrat , leader of the Fourth Crusade , in 1204 , and from 1207 to 1211 the Venetians conquered it from the Maltese Enrico Pescatore ( who had taken it in 1206 ) . Jacopo Tiepolo was installed as the first duke . Venice also controlled much of Euboea ( Negroponte ) , where they had a trading colony , and controlled various ports on mainland Greece . " ( interregnum ) " " ( interregnum ) "