The Hanseatic League (c. 13th–17th centuries) was a powerful network of merchant guilds and cities that dominated trade across northern Europe for centuries. Emerging in the late Middle Ages, the League united towns from Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen to Riga, Tallinn, and Novgorod, creating a vast commercial system that spanned the Baltic and North Seas. At its peak in the 14th and 15th centuries, the Hanseatic League included more than 200 cities and secured a near-monopoly over maritime trade in commodities such as timber, grain, wax, furs, salt, and fish.
The League’s influence went beyond commerce. It developed a distinctive political and legal structure that allowed member cities to coordinate policy, enforce privileges abroad, and even wage war, such as against Denmark in the 1360s. By linking regions from Russia to England and the Low Countries, the Hanseatic League helped shape the economic foundations of northern Europe, fostering urban growth and cultural exchange. Though weakened by the rise of powerful centralized states and shifting trade routes in the 16th century, its legacy of cooperation, law, and international commerce endured as a model for later European trade networks.
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Cite This Work
APA Style
Netchev, S. (2022, September 14). Map of the Hanseatic League Trade Network, c. 1400. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16368/map-of-the-hanseatic-league-trade-network-c-1400/
Chicago Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the Hanseatic League Trade Network, c. 1400." World History Encyclopedia, September 14, 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16368/map-of-the-hanseatic-league-trade-network-c-1400/.
MLA Style
Netchev, Simeon. "Map of the Hanseatic League Trade Network, c. 1400." World History Encyclopedia, 14 Sep 2022, https://www.worldhistory.org/image/16368/map-of-the-hanseatic-league-trade-network-c-1400/.
