Hanseatic port of Hamburg, manuscript illumination from the Hamburg City Charter of 1497.

The Art Gallery Collection/Alamy

The Hanseatic League also known as Hansa was an organization in Northern Germany and southern Scandinavia for the purpose of of establishing a commercial alliance. The league was founded by North German towns and German merchant communities abroad to protect their trading interests.

Lübeck central location in the Hanseatic League.

Northern German towns created loose unions within themselves in order to secure economic interest. This was dominated by merchant farmers. They were linked by kinship and mutual interest. By 1265 all towns under the "Law of Lübeck" agreed to a common legislation for the defense of merchants and their goods .

Lübek went westward where Rhineland merchants had previous control. Due to technological advances they assumed the privileges of the Rhinelands merchants and contributed with their rivals in order to establish the common Hanses in London and Brugge.

Gotland

Once the Hanseatic League captured Gotland in 1293 they were able establish there dominance in the Balkans. Giving them dominance in trade in this region.

From the mid-14th century onward, there was a need to defend old markets against growing competition. The stregth of the organization relied on the economic, political, and military resistance against the forces of change. Hanseatic trade was threatened with an economic embargo and blockade that broke most forms of resistance.

Danish King Danish king Vlademer IV secured his crown with the help of the Hanse in Lübek. However, in 1361 he captured Visby, and the alliance the Hanse had with Norway and Sweden was broken due to Danish diplomacy. Soon after, the Hanse beat the Danes for control of the Sound in Visby, In return they got the fortresses that dominated the herring fisheries ,two-thirds of the revenues of Skåne, and the right to determine the succession to the Danish throne for 15years.

Valdemar IV Atterdag, detail from a reproduction by Agnese Varming after a contemporary fresco; in

Courtesy of the Nationalhistoriske Museum paa Frederiksborg, Den.