Hanseatic League
league of merchant towns · 1250 AD–1668 AD
The trading network of the north German merchant towns led by Lübeck, which dominated Baltic and North Sea commerce from the 13th century. Its four great foreign offices were in Novgorod, Bergen, Bruges and London. The last general assembly met in 1669.
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At a glance
- Goods
- furs, wax, grain, timber, stockfish, herring, cloth, salt
- Carried by
- land, sea, river
- Hubs
- Lübeck → Hamburg → Visby → Novgorod → Bergen → Bruges → London
Recorded boundaries
| Period | Control | Confidence | Evidence | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1250 AD–1359 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Lübeck, Hamburg, Visby, Novgorod, Bruges and London. |
| 1360 AD–1493 AD | — | low confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Lübeck, Hamburg, Visby, Novgorod, Bergen, Bruges and London. |
| 1494 AD–1529 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Lübeck, Hamburg, Visby, Bergen, Bruges and London. |
| 1530 AD–1597 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Lübeck, Hamburg, Visby, Bergen and London. |
| 1598 AD–1668 AD | — | medium confidence | no observation date recorded | Trading through Lübeck, Hamburg, Visby and Bergen. |
Each row is a snapshot the source recorded, not a continuous history. The period between two observations is an inference this atlas shows rather than hides.
Sources
- Philippe Dollinger; translated by D. S. Ault and S. H. Steinberg, The German Hansa, (1970)