Hanseatic League

Hanseatic League (from Old High German hansa, “league”), designation applied to a federation of cities in north Germany, and of communities of German merchants in the Low Countries, England, and the Baltic region, organized during the 13th century for the protection and enhancement of mutual commercial interests. At the peak of its ascendancy, the league was a potent force in the politics of Europe. The federation developed as a result of conditions peculiar to medieval Europe, including the gradual emergence of free cities and merchant guilds; the disintegration of centralized authority within Germany; the expansion of German colonization, influence, and trade in the region east of the River Elbe; the consequent stimulation of north German trade with England and the Continental ports of the English Channel; and the prevalence of pirates and highwaymen along the main arteries of trade.

As early as the beginning of the 13th century, German merchants who had settled on the Baltic island of Gotland created a mercantile association, consisting of Cologne and 29 other towns. The Gotland association secured important trading privileges abroad, notably in England, Flanders, and Russia. In 1241, while the Gotland association was in the ascendancy, the town of Lübeck, a rival commercial centre, completed a treaty with Hamburg providing for joint control of the route between the Baltic and North seas. This alliance, which was strengthened by another agreement some years later, gave the signatories a powerful position in the commerce of north-west Europe. In consequence of these developments, the sphere of influence of the Gotland association gradually diminished. The Lübeck-Hamburg union was immeasurably strengthened in 1252, when highly advantageous commercial treaties were arranged with Flanders. Thereafter, Bruges, the chief city of Flanders and a leading mercantile centre of Europe, figured significantly in the development of the league. Rostock and Wismar concluded an alliance with Lübeck in 1259 for common action against bandits and pirates. Less than a decade later, the merchants of Lübeck and Hamburg acquired the right to establish trading organizations in London, where Cologne merchants had previously enjoyed a monopoly. About the same time, the mercantile interests of Lübeck and Hamburg obtained full or partial control of trade between Germany and the coastal towns of eastern England. Attracted by the mounting influence and prosperity of the Lübeck-Hamburg union, various other north German towns, notably Bremen and Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland), became affiliated with the organization. Other mercantile leagues of German towns, grouped on a regional basis, gradually accepted the hegemony of Lübeck and its allies. Among these leagues was one comprising certain towns of Westphalia, the Rhineland, and the Low Countries; another one consisted of the trading centres in the duchy of Saxony and the mark of Brandenburg; a third was made up of Prussian and Livonian (Latvian and Estonian) towns. The federation, officially designated as the Hansa in 1343, soon included more than 85 towns.

The league took its first major political action in 1362, when it declared war on Denmark in retaliation against the seizure of Visby, on the island of Gotland. Eventual victory over Denmark, which was compelled in 1370 to grant indemnities, strategic territories, and other concessions, tremendously increased the power and prestige of the league. Shortly thereafter, King Richard II of England confirmed the preferential commercial treaties that his government had made with the Hansa towns. The following century was a period of great prosperity for the association. It created new centres of trade and civilization in northern Europe, integrated the commerce of the region, contributed to the development of agriculture and the industrial arts, perfected a system of weights and measures, and constructed canals and highways. Intimidated by the naval establishment of the league, many sovereigns in Europe sought alliances with the organization. The league was democratically ruled by a diet, composed of delegates from the member towns, but at no time did it succeed in creating a centralized governmental structure. This circumstance contributed eventually to its collapse. The process of disintegration, which began towards the close of the 15th century, was accelerated by a variety of other circumstances, primarily the rise and consolidation of sovereign states in other parts of Europe, the discovery of America and of a new route to India, and the growth of Dutch and English sea power. Increasing friction between the league and England culminated in 1589 in the English seizure of 61 Hanseatic vessels. The outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618 was another severe blow to the tottering state of the organization. By 1630 the league consisted of just Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg. This attenuated union endured for 39 years, but the three cities retained nominal political independence and the traditional designation of Hansa towns until the revocation of these privileges in 1934 by the National Socialist (Nazi) government of Adolf Hitler.