Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Hanseatic League (Encore)

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

One of the most successful enterprises of the Middle Ages was a collection of free cities located in Northern Germany and along the North and Baltic Seas.  These cities created one of the greatest trade networks that the world had ever seen and, for several centuries, dominated trade and economics in Northern Europe. It was the early prototype for successful trade organizations in the future.  Learn more about the Hanseatic League, also known as the Hansa, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors BetterHelp Visit BetterHelp.com/everywhere today to get 10% off your first month ButcherBox ButcherBox is offering our listeners turkey FREE in your first box plus $20 off your first order. Sign up at butcherbox.com/daily and use code DAILY Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The following is an encore presentation of Everything Everywhere Daily. One of the most successful enterprises of the Middle Ages was a collection of free cities located in northern Germany and along the North and Baltic seas. These cities created one of the greatest trade networks the world had ever seen, and for several centuries dominated trade and economics in Northern Europe. It was the early prototype for successful trade organizations which would occur in the future. Learn more about the Hanseatic League, also known as the Hansa, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed. It effectively turned day into night and how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. My personal story with the Hanseatic League dates back several years ago when I was traveling around northern Germany. I was able to visit several of the Hanseatic League cities, such as Lubek, Strausland, Vizmar, and Bremen. I've been to many old European cities, and I was able to see some things which hammered

home just how successful and important the Hanseatic League was. But before I get to that story, let me explain what the Hanseatic League was and how it came to be. One of the defining characteristics of the Middle Ages in Europe was the Guild's system. The Guild system served several functions. Guild served to restrict entry into occupations, increasing competition. They offered a social network for members. It was a system for perpetuating technical knowledge, and perhaps most importantly, it allowed them to band together to protect themselves against kings and nobility. These guilds also engaged in trade with other towns and cities. In northern

Germany, these guilds were known as Hansa. In particular, for the purpose of this episode, they were able to trade with a network of cities and towns located around the North and Baltic seas. The founding of the Hanseatic League began with the city of Lubek. Lubek was rebuilt in 1159 by Henry the Lion, who was the Duke of Saxony and Bavaria. Geographically, Lubbock is located on the Baltic Sea, right next to the eastern base of the Jutland Peninsula where Denmark is located. Lubek became an important training port where goods from inland Germany, in particular Saxony and Westphalia, could be traded to cities in Scandinavia and along the Baltic Sea. In 1226, Lubek became what is known as an imperial free city. A free city was one that was still part of larger kingdom, but it wasn't ruled locally by some other minor noble. It was self-ruled, in particular,

it was run by the various guilds, or Hansa. In 1241, Lubek formed an alliance with the German city of Hamburg, which was also a free city. Lubbock had access to fishing grounds, and Hamburg had access to trade routes for salt. Together, they managed to monopolize the salt fish market for the region. This alliance was more than just about fish and salt. It also extended to mutual defense and efforts to combat piracy and thievery between the two cities. This was actually really important, because the fractured political system of the day made conditions ripe for robbers and pirates to thrive. The Lubbock-Hamburg alliance eventually arranged a treaty to get access to markets in England from King Henry II. They established what was known as a

contour in London, and a contour was a trading post slash embassy slash counting house. This arrangement between Lubek and Hamburg soon had other cities joining in. Cologne joined their group, and other cities such as Strasland and Vizmard did as well. The benefits of membership in the alliance were quickly realized by every city that joined. Removing piracy and opening up trade routes were profitable for everyone involved. Soon, three cities outside of Germany were joining. Vizby, which is an island off the coast of Sweden, became an important port in Scandinavian. Navi. Cities along the Baltic and what is today modern day Poland, Lithuania, Latvia,

and Estonia all became members. To the west, contours popped up in places like Bergen, Norway, London, Bruges, and Antwerp. In all, over a period of 200 years, 194 cities, in what is today 16 different countries, were part of or had outposts of the Hanseatic League. Despite all of the growth of the Hanseatic League, the unofficial capital, and the city which was considered the queen of the Hanseatic League, was still Lubek. The Hanseatic League was never more than a loose, informal coalition. Meetings were held in Lubek, but they were not mandatory. The primary concern of the League was simply to facilitate trade and remove any barriers, be they pirates or tariffs. Cities weren't even bound by agreements that were made by the members. So long as they didn't act

against the League, they could remain in good standing and run their city as they saw fit. There was also a mutual defense agreement that any one city would come to the aid of another if threatened. The general terms that everyone had to abide by were known as the Law of Lubek. The league members traded in anything and everything. Cloth, wool, fish, amber, wax, salt, silver, furs, timber, cotton, and grain. The peak of power for the league came in the early 14th century. The wealth and power of the league were such that it started to influence the policies of larger kingdoms and empires around. them. They actually went to war against Denmark and Norway from 1361 to 1370, and they were actually

victorious, and as part of their victory, they had free access to trade in almost all of Scandinavia. And this brings me back to my story from the beginning of the episode. I was in the city of Vizmar, Germany, which was a major Hanseatic city. In the old part of the city, there were several old parish churches. Now, I've been all over Europe, and I've seen hundreds of old churches. However, None of them were like what I saw in Vizmars. The church of St. George was the size of a cathedral. It was enormous, and it was actually larger than cathedrals I've seen in other cities in Europe. Just one block away was another church, which was just as big. Two cathedral-sized churches were right next door to each other. The other church, St. Mary, had been severely damaged during

World War II, and it was mostly demolished by the East German government during the Cold War. However, the ruins are still there, and you can obviously see how big it was. There's a third church called St. Nicholas, which is also enormous, just a few blocks away from the other two. Today, Vizmar is a city of 43,000 people, and it's never been a huge city. So how is it that such a small city has three cathedral-sized churches all within a short walking distance of each other? The short answer is money. These churches were built during the heyday of the Hanseatic League. The various parishes were associated with certain guilds, and the guilds were constantly trying

to show each other up. One of the ways they did this was through the construction of massive churches. I have been almost everywhere in Europe, and I've never seen anything quite like this medieval display of wealth that I saw in the city of Vizmar. These churches, which can still be visited today, are a testament to the power and wealth of the Hanseatic League. Eventually, the power and influence of the Hanseatic League started to wane. One thing which hurt the League was the same thing that devastated all of Europe, the Black Death. The 14th century Black Death reduced populations by up to 50% across the continent. Additioned to the deaths, it devastated the economy by creating a severe labor shortage. Fields were left fallow, ships couldn't find crews.

In the 15th century, there was an event known as the Great Bullion Famine, which was a shortage of gold and silver, mainly due to outflows in the Middle East, but silver mines in Germany also flooded during this period and there was no way to remove the water. And on top of that, there was the little ice age in the 15th century, which was a climatic event that reduced agricultural output. All of these things re-shoveled the political climate in Europe and shifted the balance of power away from free cities and back towards larger states. In the 16th century, they found themselves on the wrong side of several conflicts in Scandinavia, and in the 17th century, they all but collapsed due to internal conflict. Despite a massive reduction in influence, the Hanseatic League took centuries

to completely die out. In the 19th century, the Hanseatic League was down to just three cities, Bremen, Lubeck, and Hamburg. The final nail in the Hanseatic coffin took place in 1862 when the alliance was finally dissolved. The legacy of the Hanseatic League can still be seen today. The name of the German national airline is Luftanzah, which literally means Air Hansa. Likewise, there are football clubs, breweries, banks, and theme parks, all named after the Hanseatic League. In 1980, an organization of former Hanseatic cities was created called the New Hansa. Another group called the New Hanseatic League was founded in 2018, which is a group of finance

ministers from countries in the region. The Hanseatic League was a major part of the history of Northern Europe and helped shape what the region is today, and was also a very distant ancestor to what would become the free trade organizations of the 20th and 21st centuries. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. Our associate producers are Peter Bennett and Cameron Kiefer. I wanted to give a big thanks to everyone who supports the show on Patreon. Your support helps me put out a new show every day. And if you're interested in Everything Everywhere daily merchandise,

Patreon is currently the only place where it's available. And if you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and get notified to future episodes and projects, please join my Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.