Hanseatic League - Medieval Trading Ports

In the later Middle Ages or medieval period there was an alliance of trading guilds that controlled all of the business over Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea region. This was the Hanseatic League. Hansa is a German term for “guilds. The Baltic Sea area had always been the subject of piracy, raids and unorganized trade but the scale of these ventures never reached an international scope. The Hanseatic League changed all that. In 1158-1159 the German town of Lubeck, now, in modern times, the second largest city in northern Germany, was rebuilt by Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony, after he had captured it from Adolf the Second of Holstein. This would one day be the cornerstone of the league. Next