) Exploratory trading ventures, raids, and piracy occurred throughout the Baltic Sea. The sailors of
Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as
Novgorod, which was a
major Rus trade centre. Scandinavians led the Baltic trade before the League, establishing major trading hubs at
Birka,
Haithabu, and
Schleswig by the 9th century CE. The later Hanseatic ports between
Mecklenburg and
Königsberg (present-day
Kaliningrad) originally formed part of the Scandinavian-led Baltic trade system. As the Hanseatic League was never formally founded, it lacks a date of foundation. Historians have traditionally traced its origins to the rebuilding of the north German town of
Lübeck in 1159 by the powerful
Henry the Lion,
Duke of Saxony and
Bavaria, after he had captured the area from
Adolf II,
Count of Schauenburg and
Holstein. More recent scholarship has deemphasized Lübeck, viewing it as one of several regional trading centers, and presenting the League as the combination of a north German trading system oriented on the Baltic and a Rhinelandic trading system targeting England and
Flanders. German cities speedily dominated
trade in the Baltic during the 13th century, and Lübeck became a central node in the seaborne trade that linked the areas around the
North and
Baltic seas. Lübeck hegemony peaked during the 15th century.
Foundation and early development Well before the term
Hanse appeared in a document in 1267, in different cities began to form
guilds, or
hansas, with the intention of trading with overseas towns, especially in the economically less-developed eastern Baltic. This area could supply timber,
wax,
amber,
resins, and furs, along with
rye and wheat brought on barges from the hinterland to port markets. Merchant guilds formed in hometowns and destination ports as medieval corporations (
universitates mercatorum),
Estonian, and
Latvian.
Visby, on the island of Gotland, functioned as the leading center in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called
Gutagard (also known as
Gotenhof) in 1080. In 1120, Gotland gained autonomy from Sweden and admitted traders from its southern and western regions. In the first half of the 13th century, they established their own trading station or
Kontor in Novgorod, known as the
Peterhof, up the
river Volkhov. of Lübeck, built in 1464, is the only historic gate of the city still standing today.
Lübeck soon became a base for merchants from
Saxony and
Westphalia trading eastward and northward; for them, because of its shorter and easier access route and better legal protections, it was more attractive than
Schleswig. It became a transshipment port for trade between the North Sea and the Baltics. Lübeck also granted extensive trade privileges to Russian and Scandinavian traders. and to grant protection to merchants and goods throughout England. monuments, such as
Stralsund's St. Nikolai Church and its City Hall, shown here. The old town of Stralsund, together with
Wismar, is a
UNESCO World Heritage Site.
German colonists in the 12th and 13th centuries settled in numerous cities on and near the east Baltic coast, such as Elbing (
Elbląg), Thorn (
Toruń), Reval (
Tallinn),
Riga, and Dorpat (
Tartu), all of which joined the League, and some of which retain Hansa buildings and bear the style of their Hanseatic days. Most adopted
Lübeck law, after the league's most prominent town. The law provided that they appeal in all legal matters to Lübeck's city council. Others, like
Danzig from 1295 onwards, had
Magdeburg law or its derivative,
Culm law. Over the 13th century, older and wealthier long-distance traders increasingly chose to settle in their hometowns as trade leaders, transitioning from their previous roles as landowners. The growing number of settled merchants afforded long-distance traders greater influence over town policies. Coupled with an increased presence in the
ministerial class, this elevated the status of merchants and enabled them to expand to and assert dominance over more cities. and
Hamburg in the part about ship law (
Van schiprechte) in the Hamburg city right from 1497In 1241, Lübeck, which had access to the Baltic and North seas' fishing grounds, formed an alliance—a precursor to the League—with the trade city of Hamburg, which controlled access to the
salt-trade routes from
Lüneburg. These cities gained control over most of the
salt-fish trade, especially the
Scania Market;
Cologne joined them in the
Diet of 1260. The towns raised their armies, with each guild required to provide
levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities aided one another, and commercial ships often served to carry soldiers and their arms. The network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities. In the West, cities of the
Rhineland such as Cologne enjoyed trading privileges in Flanders and England. This network of Hanseatic trading guilds became called the
Kaufmannshanse in historiography.
Commercial expansion The League succeeded in establishing additional
Kontors in
Bruges (
Flanders),
Bryggen in
Bergen (Norway), and London (England) beside the
Peterhof in Novgorod. These
trading posts were institutionalised by the first half of the 14th century (for Bergen and Bruges)
Major trade goods Starting with trade in coarse woolen fabrics, the Hanseatic League increased both commerce and industry in northern Germany. As trade increased, finer woolen and linen fabrics, and even silks, were manufactured in northern Germany. The same refinement of products out of the cottage industry occurred in other fields, e.g. etching, wood carving, armor production, engraving of metals, and
wood-turning. The league primarily traded beeswax, furs, timber, resin (or tar), flax, honey, wheat, and rye from the east to
Flanders and England with cloth, in particular
broadcloth, (and, increasingly,
manufactured goods) going in the other direction. Metal ore (principally copper and iron) and herring came south from Sweden, while the Carpathians were another important source of copper and iron, often sold in
Thorn. Lubeck had a vital role in the salt trade; salt was acquired in Lüneburg or shipped from France and Portugal and sold on Central European markets, taken to Scania to salt herring, or exported to Russia.
Stockfish was traded from Bergen in exchange for grain; Hanseatic grain inflows allowed more permanent settlements further north in Norway. The league also traded beer, with beer from Hanseatic towns the most valued, and Wendish cities like Lübeck, Hamburg, Wismar, and Rostock developed export breweries for hopped beer. from 1307 or 1308 to 1310 including
Kõpu Lighthouse.
Zenith ,
Pomerania, today in Poland The weakening of imperial power and imperial protection under the late
Hohenstaufen dynasty forced the League to institutionalize a cooperating network of cities with a fluid structure, called the
Städtehanse, Only a few Hanseatic cities were
free imperial cities or enjoyed comparable autonomy and liberties, but many temporarily escaped domination by local nobility. (now
Tallinn, Estonia) Between 1361 and 1370, League members fought against
Denmark in the
Danish-Hanseatic War. Though initially unsuccessful with a Wendish offensive, towns from
Prussia and the Netherlands, and eventually joined by Wendish towns, allied in the
Confederation of Cologne in 1368, sacked
Copenhagen and
Helsingborg, and forced
Valdemar IV, King of Denmark, and his son-in-law
Haakon VI, King of Norway, to grant tax exemptions and influence over
Øresund fortresses for 15 years in the
peace treaty of Stralsund in 1370. It extended privileges in Scania to the League, including Holland and Zeeland. The treaty marked the height of Hanseatic influence; for this period the League was called a "Northern European
great power". The Confederation lasted until 1385, while the Øresund fortresses were returned to Denmark that year. After Valdemar's heir Olav died, a succession dispute erupted over Denmark and Norway between
Albert of Mecklenburg, King of Sweden and
Margaret I, Queen of Denmark. This was further complicated when Swedish nobles rebelled against Albert and invited Margaret. Albert was taken prisoner in 1389, but hired
privateers in 1392, the socalled
Victual Brothers, who took Bornholm and Visby in his name. They and their descendants threatened maritime trade between 1392 and the 1430s. Under the 1395 release agreement for Albert,
Stockholm was ruled from 1395 to 1398 by a consortium of 7 Hanseatic cities, and enjoyed full Hanseatic trading privileges. It went to Margaret in 1398. In response, and due to the ongoing war between Novgorod and the Teutonic Order, the League blockaded Novgorod and abandoned the
Peterhof from 1443 to 1448. After
extended conflicts with the League from the 1370s, English traders gained trade privileges in
the Prussian region via the treaties of Marienburg (the first in 1388, the last in 1409). Until 1394,
Holland and
Zeeland actively participated in the Hansa, but in 1395, their feudal obligations to
Albert I, Duke of Bavaria prevented further cooperation. Consequently, their Hanseatic ties weakened, and their economic focus shifted. Between 1417 and 1432, this economic reorientation became even more pronounced as Holland and Zeeland gradually became part of the
Burgundian State. The city of Lübeck faced financial troubles in 1403, leading dissenting craftsmen to establish a supervising committee in 1405. This triggered a governmental crisis in 1408 when the committee rebelled and established a new town council. Similar revolts broke out in Wismar and Rostock, with new town councils established in 1410. The crisis was ended in 1418 by a compromise. The Sound tolls, and a later attempt of Lübeck to exclude the English and Dutch merchants from Scania harmed the Scanian herring trade when the excluded regions began to develop their own herring industries. The lack of customs borders on the River
Vistula after 1466 helped to gradually increase Polish grain exports, transported down the
Vistula, from per year, in the late 15th century, to over in the 17th century. The Hansa-dominated maritime
grain trade made Poland one of the main areas of its activity, helping Danzig to become the Hansa's largest city. Polish kings soon began to reduce the towns' political freedoms. Tsar
Ivan III of Russia closed the Hanseatic
Kontor at Novgorod in 1494 and deported its merchants to Moscow, in an attempt to reduce Hanseatic influence on Russian trade. At the time, only 49 traders were at the Peterhof. (the main mining area of Sweden in the 16th century) with
Jakob Fugger (industrialist in the mining and metal industry) and his unfriendly business take-over attempt. Fugger allied with his financially dependent pope
Leo X,
Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and
Christian II of Denmark/Norway. Both sides made costly investments in support of
mercenaries to win the war. After the war,
Gustav Vasa's Sweden and
Frederick I's
Denmark pursued independent policies and didn't support Lübeck's effort against Dutch trade. Later in the 16th century, Denmark-Norway took control of the southern Baltic Sea. Sweden had regained control over its own trade, the
Kontor in Novgorod had closed, and the
Kontor in Bruges had become effectively moribund because the
Zwin inlet was closing up. The Prussian Quartier cities of Thorn, Elbing,
Königsberg and Riga and Dorpat also signed. When pressed by the King of
Poland–Lithuania, Danzig remained neutral and would not allow ships running for Poland into its territory. They had to anchor somewhere else, such as at
Pautzke (Puck). The Antwerp
Kontor, moribund after the
fall of the city, closed in 1593. In 1597 Queen
Elizabeth I of England expelled the League from London, and the Steelyard closed and sequestered in 1598. The Kontor returned in 1606 under her successor,
James I, but it could not recover. The league became increasingly irrelevant despite its inclusion in the
Peace of Westphalia. Britain maintained
diplomats to the Hanseatic Cities until the
unification of Germany in 1871. The three cities also had a common "Hanseatic" representation in Berlin until 1920. Since 1990, 24 other German cities have adopted this title. == Organization ==