Hanseatic League: Medieval Common Market? (#2215)

For 300 years, from the 13th to the 17th Centuries, a commercial federation of trade guilds operated a network in northern Europe, stretching from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea, and from England to Russia. This class will explain the Hanseatic League, covering its rise, expansion, eventual decline, and legacy today. LeMay will describe its zenith of power and its fleet which dominated the Baltic sea trade, the League’s conflict with pirates, the papacy, and the Teutonic Knights, and the League’s conflict with kings, princes, and dukes of Northern Europe. We will learn about the development of a rudimentary parliament (called a Diet) before such bodies were developed in the nation-states of Europe. The Hanseatic League served as the Medieval period’s equivalent of the 20th Century European Common Market and the 21st Century’s development of the European Union.