HANSEATIC LEAGUE, HANSA, or HANSE, a confederacy of cer tain cities of northern Germany for mutual protection, especially, in matters of commerce; for the extension of trade, and of rights and immunities received from sovereigns, and which had suffered curtailment. The union was formed in the 13th century, at a time when sea and land swarmed with pirates and robbers, and German trade, no longer guarded by the privi leges of armed attendants, was exposed to many dangers, while the government had degenerated into a power for extorting taxes without giving protection.
The first alliances known to have been con cluded are those between Hamburg and Liibecic (1241 and 1255) to keep open the road across Holstein connecting the North Sea with the Baltic, and between Lubeck, Rostock and Weimar in 1259 for defending themselves against .the pirates. About the same time a similar league was concluded between the Westphalian towns, Miinster, Dortmund, Soest and Lipp stadt. When a wider union came to be formed for like purposes, the name of Hansa, signify ing a league, which was at first applied to any such confederacy, survived exclusively as the name of that influential league. During its most flourishing period it embraced 90 towns, scattered over the whole length and breadth of Germany, including Holland. Its organization was very loose, the towns of which it was made up being at first divided into three and, after the 16th century, into four provinces, each with a chief town. These divisions had however, little more than a geographical significance. The town of Lubeck, which already held an important rank, from the fact that it was the highest court of appeal for all those towns which were governed by the Liibeck law, was recognized as the chief town of the league. Here assembled the deputies of the other Hanse towns to deliberate on the affairs of the con federacy; the decrees of the Diet had no effect unless they received the sanction of the separate towns.
In the 14th century the league everywhere attained a high political importance, and gave rise to the development of that commercial policy which has since become intimately con nected with all political relations, but of which the sovereigns of that time had little idea. Kings and princes were, in reality, more de pendent on the league than it was on them. The extensive carrying trade of the Hanseatic League was a great source of wealth, and at length there was no mart in Europe which was not gradually drawn within the circle of its influence. England, Denmark and Flanders con
cluded treaties with the league for the exten sion of their commerce. It undertook to pro vide for the security of commerce on the Baltic and North seas. In the country under its immediate influence it constructed canals, and introduced a uniform system of weights and measures.
But the prosperity of the Hanse towns was naturally dependent on the continuance of the circumstances which gave rise to it, and when circumstances changed the league was destined to decline. When the routes by land and sea were no longer insecure; when princes learned the advantages of trade to their own states, and turned their attention to the formation of a naval force of their own, and the encouragement of navigation; when the inland members of the confederation perceived that the great seaport towns had a separate interest of their own, and used them principally to promote their own ends; then the dissolution of the Hanseatic League was evidently approaching. There re mained at last as active members of it only Hamburg, Luneburg, Liibeck and the towns in the neighborhood (Wismar, Rostock, Greifs wald, Stralsund), whose interests were identi fied with those of Liibecic. The league existed no longer as a political power, but merely as a loose association of towns for commercial purposes.
In England, during the reign of Queen Eliza beth, the league lost its privileges by its refusal to grant complete reciprocity. About 1614 there remained only 14 towns which contributed to the support of the league and had a voice in the management of its affairs. These were Liibeck, Wismar, Rostock, Stralsund, Greifs wald, Stettin, Danzig, Magdeburg, Brunswick. Hildesheim, Liineburg, Hamburg, Bremen and Cologne. The Thirty Years' War, which de stroyed the prosperity of the German towns generally, gave the death-blow to the league. At the diet of 1629 it was entrusted to the cities of Liibeck, Bremen and Hamburg to consult for its general interests, and in 1630 these towns concluded among themselves a closer union, which was renewed in 1641. After the Peace of Westphalia (1648) repeated but vain attempts were made to bring the league together again, and a last diet was held in 1669. Hamburg, Liibeck and Bremen still retain their independ ence, and now form separate constituents of the German Empire. Consult in English, Zirnmern, Hansa Towns' (1889) ; and in German, the exhaustive series of works published be tween 1872 and 1910.