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The rise and fall of the Hanseatic League
The Hanseatic League united merchants to bargain with kings, blockade cities, and even win wars. But when technology changed, defections began and the coalition fell apart.
Since the pre-Viking Iron Age, Scandinavian artisans used the region’s months-long sub-zero temperatures and strong coastal winds to naturally freeze dry their fish, making them shelf stable for years. Flat bottoms make ships less stable in high seas, keeping them in shallower, coastal waters, but they give them the ability to beach on shores instead of needing to find a port. Similarly they undercut Hansa shippers’ freight rates and disintermediated Hanseatic port merchants by sailing upriver to the inland German towns, where they sourced merchandise directly from producers.
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