Hansan

__Hansan__ __ Introduction: __

I’ve chosen for this assignment to concentrate on ”Hansan”, a union created between different cities that practised trade and also were politically influential during the medieval ages of early 12th-until the end of the 17th-century. (High-Late Middle Ages). I can begin by telling you, germans were the head of the Hansan, so you read with that in the back of your mind. I chose Hansan because i didn’t know anything about it and wanted to learn more.

=**Main Part**= // The word ”Hansa” origanally meant “followers” but in the 13th century came to mean “a group of marchents working abroad”. //

Hansan started out in the 12th century as an association of north-german merchants practicing trade in the parts of the Baltic-and Northsea. They realized collaboration would be much more effective than just working on their own, but also the german king saw oppartunity to make alot of money and thereby beeing able to buy services instead of having to give away such things as lands and goods. They established headquarters in the cities they visited most often, cities like Visby, Bergen and Riga.

In the 13th century Hansan quickly gained more influence in the Baltic region and special trade agreements were made.

In the 14th century Hansan was reorganized into a union between cities rather than between merchants. By doing so Hansan became greater and wealthier than before, with the city of Lübeck as the main headquarter. At the time of 14th -and 15th century Hansan dominated pretty much all of the Baltic trade. Deals and trade-agreements had been made with Asia aswell as The Byzantine Empire, The Arabworld and China. Hansan connected Europe with eachother and at the same time also connected Europe with Asia and the Arabworld. And by that the countries could evolve with the new goods and materials they didn’t have before. At its peak, Hansan had almost one hundred (100) cities under its influence.

Picture below; showing Hansan expansion during it’s prime. (Re garding the pic. //Refer to the text on the bottom-page.) // //Hansan controlled all goods floating across the Baltic Sea, it was very important the goods held good quality to keep the costumers happy. Goods such as Limestone from Oland and Gotland beeing used to build churches, Iron from East Smaland and horses from Oland are just a few examples of things beeing shipped to cities surrounding the Baltic. Cities that couldn’t produce these materials and goods themselves, so by this global-area trading the countries in the Hansan union became “globalized”, meaning they imported goods they didn’t have and exporting goods they did have.

This way of trading also introduced a commercial revolution in Europe, people prior to this way of trading had been performing self-catering (that means you live without trading or buying with any form of currency, you live of that you produce yourself) were now introduced to a new kind of currency, a common type of money.This could be said were the first steps toward Capitalism.

Hansans headquarters in the different countries were controlled by germans and thereby gave them a dominant position even in cities not directly controlled by Hansan. For example, the german dialekt spoken by the hansan-merchants has effected the scandinavian languages in a great extent.

Hansans greatest period were in the 15th century. Hansan didn’t want for any individual country in the union to grow to independent and strong though it could endanger Hansans influence and limit their privileges and eventually benefit domestic merchants at the unions expense. But also they could pose as a threat against the monopoly, therefore Hansan fought on the same side as the country inferior in battle to keep balance among the union. After the danish king Valdemar Atterdag had invaded Visby, (Gotland) the Swedish king Gustav Vasa fled to Lübeck and asked Hansan for aid in defeating the Danish. Gustav Vasa promised Hansan tradeprivileges in Sweden and lifelong membership in Hansan in exchange for aid. Hansan didn’t want the public to know they wanted to cut the Danish off, but at the same time feared the Danish empire would grow to strong to handle. So they helped Vasa with military aid and crushed the Danish Baltic empire.

__Everything that has a beginning has an end__

Northern kings (Denmark and Norway, Sweden had also been a member in The KalmarUnion, but had left) became enemies with Hansan and their attempts to free themselves from Hansan influence were answered with blockades and trade war.

Following the defeat in the ”Feud of the Counts” Hansan lost much of its political influence. “The fatal blow” for Hansan was the “Thirty-year-war” (1618-1648). Eventually the local lords and cities gained increased amounts of resources which led to Hansan after the 14th century no longer had the strong position as before.

In the 15th century Hansan suffered internal seperations between groups of cities and in addition experienced increased rivalry from Dutch and English merchants.

In the last period of the 15th century following the defeat in the “Feud of the Counts”Hansan influence and power began to fall. Members began to leave the union, greatly weakening it. Hansan continued to fall apart and the last Hansan meeting was held in 1669.

After reading this text you should know: //
 * __ Summary: __**

Hansan was a trade-union founded in the 12th century. It contributed to the steps toward Capitalism. Hansan had great political influence. It fell apart due to the cause of countries leaving the union. //

I chose the sources I did because I compared and read all of them and they had pretty much the same information, more or less. And I don’t think all of these pages are involved in a conspiracy. I first of all checked Wikipedia (always do) and thought it contained some interesting facts, then to be sure the facts were correct I double-checked it with plenty of other internet pages, and it turned out to be correct. // I think that’s pretty much it.
 * __ Source Criticism: __**

Jon  Check out these links if you want to dig some deeper into the facinating“Hansan”. They are in swedish (and as you might know, we’re working in english), but I’m certain you can translate as well as I can, so it shouldn’t be a problem J. []
 * //__ Be sure to check out the links below ;) __//**

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The text says I’m allowed to use the pic. without any permission from German Wiki.
 * __Regarding the picture:__**

// **”Denna bild har släppts fri (eller släpps härmed fri) till** //  // [|**public domain**] //   // **av dess skapare,** //   // [|**German Wikipedia**] //   // **på** //   //  [|**German Wikipedia**] **-projektet. Detta gäller över hela världen.** // **Om detta strider mot lagstiftning:** // [|**German Wikipedia**] // //**tillåter alla att använda bilden**//  //**till valfritt ändamål**//  //**utan villkor, bortsett från sådana villkor som lagstiftning kräver.”**//