Hanseatic League

1. Hanseatic League By: Jessica Devora

2. What was the Hanseatic League? • The Hanseatic League was an organization of German merchants which was first formed during the mid-12th century by German and Scandinavian Merchants • Merchants united to form tariffs agreements to protect their cargo and make sure ports were safely maintained

3. …Continued • The original networks consisted of linked Lübeck, Westfalia, Saxony and Gotland, but it quickly spread east with the conquest of Livonia in the early 13th century • During the height of the Hanseatic league covered both the North Sea and Baltic Sea Regions stretching inland along the rivers from the Rhine to the Daugava • From Lübeck The Hanseatic League followed the Livonian conquest into the Eastern Baltic • League was searching for Russian agricultural products and raw materials for shipbuilding

5. Hanseatic Cities • In 14th century The Hanseatic League evolves into towns and into powerful compact of cities • In 1280, Lübeck and Visby united to secure peace along the trade routes to Gotland (Sweden) and Novgorod (Russia)(began the city Hansa) • In 1292, Riga “mediator in trade between the east and the west” joins the Hanseatic age becoming the first Hanseatic City in Livonia.(Estonia's Tallinn was the next in line) • Daugava (Duna) and Volga were important trade routes in Russia connected Asia and Europe

6. Hanseatic League: Political Structures and Influences • In 1284 a Hanseatic Diet was established(meetings regularly until 1356) • Hanseatic diet concerned itself with negotiations with foreign towns or rulers, ratification of trading agreements or privileges, trade and commercial blockades, financial matters, military issues, membership expansion or exclusion of member towns, conflicts within the members, conflicts with feudal nobility, and competition policy • The Hanseatic League was broken into 3 groups: the Wendish-Saxon Hansa (the most powerful group), the Westphalian-Prussian Hansa and the Livonian-Gotlandic Hansa.

7. …Continued • Politically, the Livonian metropolis also exercised a certain amount of power over cities in which the Hansa had branch posts • Riga oversaw the posts in Smolensk and Polozk, Tallinn oversaw Rasborg and Viborg in Finland, and Dorpat oversaw Pleskau (Pskov) • The post at Kaunas in Lithuania was overseen by Danzig (Gdansk), although the nobility of rural Livland, Kurland and Lithuania were loyal trade partners with Riga merchants into the 17th century

8. Decline of The Hanseatic League • In the 16th century the influence of The Hanseatic League in the Baltic Sea region started to decrease • The cause was due to the emergence and combining of sovereign states in other parts of Europe and the growth of Dutch and English sea power • Lithuania and Poland were united in 1386; Denmark, Sweden, and Norway formed a union in 1397; and Ivan III of Moscow closed the Hanseatic trading settlement in Novgorod in 1494. • The Diet of the damaged Hanseatic League had its final meeting in 1669

9. http://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/hansa.html#merchanthttp://depts.washington.edu/baltic/papers/hansa.html#merchant http://www.cornerstonesworld.com/article/TheGenesis-of-the-Hanseatic-League