Hanseatic League , or Hansa, (from German Hanse, “association”) Organization founded in the late medieval period by northern German towns and merchant communities to protect their trading interests. The league dominated commercial activity in northern Europe from the 13th to the 15th century. It protected transport of goods by quelling pirates and brigands and fostered safe navigation by building lighthouses. Most important, it sought to organize and control trade by winning commercial privileges and monopolies and by establishing trading bases overseas. In extreme cases its members resorted to warfare, as when they raised an armed force that defeated the Danes in 1368 and confirmed the league’s supremacy in the Baltic Sea. Over 150 towns were at some point associated with the league, including Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck.
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