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The Hanseatic League was an alliance of German merchant guilds and trading towns that dominated commerce in the Baltic and North Sea from the 13th to the 15th century, with Lübeck as its informal capital and trading posts from London to Novgorod.

Hanseatic League

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The story behind the card

The League grew in the late 12th century from a few north German towns and at its height took in nearly 200 settlements across what are now eight countries. It had no king, army or permanent government. Member towns sent delegates to occasional assemblies called Hansetage, shared trading privileges, and sometimes blockaded or even fought rivals, as in the war that defeated Denmark in 1370. Its great foreign offices, called kontors, stood in London, Bruges, Bergen and Novgorod. As strong territorial states rose, the League faded; its last assembly met in 1669. Hamburg and Bremen still call themselves Free Hanseatic Cities.

Türkçe oku
Hansa Birliği, Alman tüccar loncalarının ve ticaret kentlerinin kurduğu bir birlikti; 13. yüzyıldan 15. yüzyıla kadar Baltık ve Kuzey Denizi ticaretine hâkim oldu. Birliğin fiilî merkezi Lübeck'ti; Londra'dan Novgorod'a kadar ticaret büroları vardı.

Birlik 12. yüzyılın sonunda birkaç kuzey Alman kentinden doğdu ve en parlak döneminde bugünkü sekiz ülkeye yayılan 200'e yakın yerleşimi kapsadı. Kralı, ordusu ya da kalıcı bir hükûmeti yoktu. Üye kentler zaman zaman toplanan ve Hansetag denen meclislere temsilci gönderir, ticaret ayrıcalıklarını paylaşır, gerektiğinde rakiplerini abluka altına alır, hatta onlarla savaşırdı; 1370'te Danimarka'ya karşı kazanılan savaş bunun bir örneğidir. Yurt dışındaki büyük ticaret büroları, yani kontorlar, Londra, Brugge, Bergen ve Novgorod'daydı. Güçlü toprak devletleri ortaya çıktıkça birlik etkisini yitirdi; son meclisini 1669'da topladı. Hamburg ve Bremen bugün de kendilerini “Özgür Hansa Kenti” olarak adlandırır.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Hanseatic League
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