The Most Important Historical Organisation You’ve Never Heard Of?!

The Most Important Historical Organisation You’ve Never Heard Of?! 💸💰📚
#Hansa #HanseaticLeague #Germany #Poland #Sweden #Russia #Finland #England #Boston #Maps #Mapping #Geography #Maps #Mapping #Tourism #Travel #TravelMemories #TravelIdeas #FunFacts #Facts
Riga, Latvia. Gdansk, Poland. Gottland, Sweden. And Lubeck, Germany. What do these places and cities all have in common? They all are situated in Northern Europe, and they are all on the coast of the Baltic Sea - but it goes deeper than that…
Before the modern age, and more specifically the discovery of the Americas, these places, amongst many other across Northern Europe, formed a major, powerful European trading network - the Hanseatic League.
Though its history remains relatively popularly unknown, those that do know a little about it will know that the Hanseatic League was a powerful and influential organization that emerged in the late medieval period, and that it had a significant impact on the development of trade, commerce, and political alliances in Northern Europe. Let's explore that history.
The Hanseatic league emerged in the 12th century as a loose association of German merchants trading in the Baltic Sea region. It’s origins can be traced back to the medieval trade fairs that took place in the German cities of Lübeck, Hamburg, and Bremen. These fairs attracted merchants from all over Europe, and they became important centers of trade and commerce. The merchants who attended these fairs began to form informal associations for mutual protection and support.
As the trade networks expanded, these associations became more formalized, and in 1241, the Hanseatic League was officially established at a meeting in Lübeck. In its first incarnation, the league consisted of a number of cities and towns throughout Northern Europe, including Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock, Danzig, and many others. These cities were bound together by a common interest in trade and commerce, and they shared a desire for mutual protection and support.
After its creation, the league quickly became a dominant force in Northern Europe.

[@peterweiss123]

Was Danzig polish? I thought it was german during the middle ages :)

[@mclyte20]

Danzig had an early history of independence. It was a leading player in the Prussian Confederation directed against the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia. The Confederation stipulated with the Polish king, Casimir IV Jagiellon, that the Polish Crown would be invested with the role of head of state of western parts of Prussia (Royal Prussia). In contrast, Ducal Prussia remained a Polish fief. Danzig and other cities such as Elbing and Thorn financed most of the warfare and enjoyed a high level of city autonomy. Danzig used the title Royal Polish City of Danzig.
In 1569, when Royal Prussia's estates agreed to incorporate the region into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the city insisted on preserving its special status. It defended itself through the costly Siege of Danzig in 1577 in order to preserve special privileges, and subsequently insisted on negotiating by sending emissaries directly to the Polish king. Danzig's location as a deep-water port where the Vistula river met the Baltic Sea had made it into one of the wealthiest cities in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries as grain from Poland and Ukraine was shipped down the Vistula on barges to be loaded onto ships in Danzig, where it was shipped on to western Europe. As many of the merchants shipping the grain from Danzig were Dutch, who built Dutch-style houses for themselves, leading to other Danzigers imitating them, the city was thus given a distinctively Dutch appearance. Danzig become known as "the Amsterdam of the East", a wealthy seaport and trading crossroads that linked together the economics of western and eastern Europe, and whose location at where the Vistula flowed into the Baltic led to various powers competing to rule the city.

[@kassiano7192]

nice video