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Very good, but the League did not exist all on it's own. Most important was the trade routes through the Swiss from Venice, and by ship from Venice. Most important in this trade, though not necessarily of great volumes, was the literature. Venice had the sole right to trade in books gotten from places like Alexandria. No coincidence that the Reformation blossomed along the trade routes, from the Upper and Lower Palatinates as well as the Eastern shores of England and throughout the areas of the Hansa League. Of course, events in Spain, particularly the exodus of the Jews, also contributed in many ways. But again, the role of the Hansa trade routes was a key element of the spread of new ideas in both the Reformation and the Renaissance.
"it’s every bit as important as warfare"... I don't agree on that. It is far more important, often being the reason for war, but also more often than not, what drives the societies forward.
@@marksmang894 Absolutely, it is one of the main driving forces of implementing new technology and often adds to new ways of thinking. But war takes too much focus in history (even if it is by far the most interesting subject for us all). Compared with trade, and economic development, war is rare. Battles are even rarer. If you live in Western Europe (to pick a broadly defined but limited geografic location), there hasn't been a war that affected the general population for the past 70 years, even the cold war was more an armed peace than a peaceful war. Yet Western Europe has made great leaps forward on pretty much every positive scale we can measure. Some of it can be said to be fueled by war ofc, but overall it has really been an issue of trade and economics.
There's a book called "The German Hansa" by Philippe Dollinger and it talks about everything this video talked about but in obviously greater detail so any of you who loved this video like me should get this book. There's also a book about the successes of the Dutch Republic's trade power called "Dutch Primacy in World Trade" by Jonathan I. Israel so I'm hoping Kings and Generals makes a future Economic History video for that too.
I'm from Lübeck and the Hanseatic League still plays a dominant role in our city's self-image. The official name is actually Hansestadt (Hansa City) Lübeck. Likewise Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock and countless other cities in Northern Germany. Great Video!
Yeah I'm from Zwolle in the Netherlands. We still identify as a hanseatic city to the extent of one of the main town squares being named "Lübeckplein".
Hi, I'm from Hessen and something in this video irritates me. They are talking about Lübecks rat (example at 14:40 ). Do they mean Rat as in Council or is there actually a titel that sounds like that? At another point they were talking about Lübecks rats making decisions, and that sounds so wrong ... It is a sentence where I guess it means Lübecks Council Members. But why not say so. XD
Just when you think the 14th century is barren of good resources for your students. You drop this! The maps, sound effects and epic narration get the kids hooked every time.
This is great! Was recently getting frustrated over the lack of good videos on the Hanseatic League on RUclips. Your timing is absolutely fantastic 😂😁 Good work!
M Laser History has a FANTASTiC video delving into what a young Hansa merchant might get into on a regular day! He even uses the perspective of one of the overseas merchant quarters in Norway.
It is so fascinating that economic warfare even way before the industrial revolution was so real and at some junctures more effective than armed warfare. Im loving this economic history series. Thanks as always k&g
The shinanigans some trade cities pulled is redicilous. People really underestimate the power of trade cities at the end of the middle ages, early modern period. For example the flamish city of Ghent literally started a one city rebellion against the duke of Burgundy....who controlled the neatherlands, Belgium and eastern france in essence. An the duke nearly went bankrupt mustering an army to subdue this single city that mustered an army of 10.000 men. Ghent was defeated, but the fact the could go one on one with one of the wealthiest dukes the time period is pretty impressive. The flandern trade area was only rivaled by northern Italy. Well...at least until the cloth trade collapsed and Flanders lost its most important export...
@@noobster4779 The collapse of the Flemish cities was mainly caused by the Dutch Revolt tho. The Flemish traders migrated in large numbers to Holland where they were one of the main causes for the Dutch Golden Age
@@noobster4779 Flandern is like the cradle of modern European history. You find it everywhere, in Shakespeare's plays, economic history and two weeks ago I visited a museum with art from the beginning of the 20th century and many paintings were about war in or for Flanders. Crazy interesting. There's a play by Friedrich Schiller, "Don Carlos", where Flanders is used as a poetic device for freedom. "Remember Flanders" are the last words of the revolutionary character in the play.
Wow. I always love Kings and Generals material, but this video was absolutely great! I really enjoy the multilayered description, going from the diplomatic relations, to the routes themselve and the wares traded - shifting from a bird's eye view to a first-person view (what it was like to be a merchant). History books are oftentimes just either one or the other: either dynasties and geography or "the daily life of ..." . What a treat!
Fun fact: The last three remaining Hanseatic cities to this day have a signifier of this heritage on their respective license plates on cars: HB - Hansestadt Bremen, HH - Hansestadt Hamburg, and HL - Hansestadt Lübeck
Not to forget that Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen were independent still after 1806 and when the Reich was founded, they were states of the new Reich contributing the red colour to the new flag. And even now Hamburg and Bremen are federal city states along with larger states like Bavvaria, Brandenburg or Hessen.
You forgot the cities of Wismar (HWI), Rostock (HRO), Stralsund (HST) and Greifswald (HGW), which also have the H for Hanseatic city in their license plates. After the reunification of Germany, these cities were given the honor of officially calling themselves Hanseatic cities again, which was somehow not honored in the GDR.
@@Dave_Sisson Yeah, that is a common myth. The Dutch were already quite rich before they went to the East Indies in the 1590s. While the Dutch also profited from the Portuguese trading routes in the 1500s by acting as middlemen in Europe, it was dwarfed by the Baltic Trade. Even for most of the 17th century the Baltic Trade stayed more important to the Dutch then the American and Asian trade routes. In Dutch it is still known as the "Mother Trade"
@@Raadpensionaris And even trade between Europe and the indies wasn't very profitable, it's better than returning empty, but most of the profit there was made by taking over existing asian regional trade routes
@@Dave_Sisson A single trade venture to Indonesia brought more wealth than a venture to Riga however ventures took half a year and arrivals were not guaranteed. Trade routes on the Baltic were shorter so more trade venture took place. The trade in timber, wool and grain in the North was far bigger than the trade in spice.
@@ReapNL Truth, VOC made the most profit by facilitating trade between kingdoms in Indonesia and India and between Japan and China. I would say that two thirds of the trade ventures began and ended in Asia.
It is important to note that the development of the cog played an instrumental part in allowing these cities to form the prosperous trade routes of the north. A large enough vessel for various goods to be carried, but with a shallow draft that allowed it to navigate the treacherous waters of the Danish Straits, connecting the North and Baltic seas.
In Indian ocean trade there were huge Individual groups and association some aligned within their national borders as well as from across different borders.
@@ShubhamMishrabro The EIC(1600) is 2 years older actually than the VOC(1602) but the VOC was far more succesfull at first and dwarfed the EIC up until the late 18th century.
Hansas were a total beast. +2 adjacency from commercial hubs, aqueducts, canals and dams. Then with a Coal plant and craftsmen you can build the Forbidden Palace in like 2 turns
The one thing really missing from this portrayal is the fact of life in the fraternity. You could not join the Hanse, you had to be brought up within it. They had their own culture and customs and were closed to outsiders - creating the bonds of trust necessary for trade and cooperation on this scale. The initiation rituals were so rough that they were sometimes even fatal, which shows the almost cultish nature of the Hanse.
This channel is now Extensive and ripe enough for Tv series. The Topics, coverage, Graphics, presentation, oration and consistency are all marvelous. Its uniqueness guarantees a fan base for the series.
From Visby here, I remember traveling to Lubeck and Rostock in my teens and while most things where slightly foreign to me it was always a comforting feeling of familiarity in the architecture from inner old town Visby where the German traders lived. Seeing the same kind of houses in these larger German cities... yea just a shame the Dane had to spoil that. I'd also like to point out that thx to the Hansa a few old German sounding words are still present in modern day Gotlandic. Yes the Gotlandic dialect is nearly a language of it's own and not many swedes understand it. I assume if you know Swedish, Danish (cus we where Danish for like 300 years after that) and German one would understand the older form of this dialect... that is just a guess tho. Thank you for this video Kings and Generals it's extremely rare for me to get history that i consider part of my personal heritage like this on youtube. Also i don't think i'l ever get this opportunity like this ever again so here goes, Greetings fellow hansastat brothers and sisters :D
That’s quite interesting. Since I am from Northern Germany, I know German of course but also understand Low German, the language spoken in the league (and in many north German areas until today). Furthermore I speak Swedish and Danish, so I need to check out if I can understand your Visbyan dialect. The links between culture and history always amazes me. Greetings are send across the Baltic Sea.
@@fikro14 Awesome, so i'm not originally from Visby but from a farm like half an hour away tho i live in Visby today. Gotlandic used to have almost as many local variations as there are churches on Gotland... look that up, seriously it's a lot of them. It feels like Visby folk have never had a proper Gotlandic dialect during my lifetime. That said whenever i meet someone from Visby on the mainland then i actually hear that they do have one. I grew up with my my dads parents around on a daily basis and as a young kid i really liked grandfather so i took after his dialect and he was from the southern parts of Gotland where they according to most have the most challenging form of the modern dialect. I don't quite speak like they do down there but i would understand more then most if i would walk into a sauna full of old men down there then most.
I live in Münster, which was also part of the Hansa. In a street called "Salzstraße" ("Salt Street") are paving stones from the different cities that were part of the Hansa. You can find many hints to the Hansa throughout Germany, eventhough it dates back to the middle ages, which is pretty cool!
I'm from Hansestadt (Hansa City) Rostock and I was very amused to find Hansa Kontors in Brugge, Bergen and Tallinn for example. Even our football club is called FC Hansa Rostock. We are still proud of this heritage. Thanks for the video. I would like to see more.
In Riga a street and a neighbourhood where the old Hanseaticwarehouses were, is still called Hansa, also there's an annual Hanseatic medieval celebration in honor of the league. Quite cool to watch about this medieval version of basically EU
1. Riga area wasn't Slavic-speaking before its founding as it was the home of Finnic-speaking Livonians and Baltic-speaking Letts. 2. Northern Estonia was under Denmark back then and should have been coloured as such.
The best videogame adaptation from this era is definitely the Patrician saga, more concretely Patrician 3. Is a bit dated, but if you're interested in Hanseatic history and commerce I wholeheartedly recommend it!
As someome who grew up in Kaunas, Lithuania. I vividly remember how fun and vibrant the Hansa day festivals would be. One of the best time to visit the city.
Man, I've been in love with the Hanseatic League since I was a sophomore in high school! I've even played hundreds of hours in a video game series called The Patrician.
In the netherlands we learn about the hansa in highschool history class, but in the context of the what the dutch, as their successor in many ways, would become. Enlightening to learn more about it from this video!
A linguistic a-ha moment: Now i know why when we go to work, or the Office, we say we go to the Kontor - and not the Byrå or Bureau - up here in Norway.
@@privatebaldric8767 Afrikaans IS Dutch. Just like Quebecois is french, and American English is English. Afrikaans is basically a 16th century version of Dutch with elements from Frisian and low German. It's pretty normal phenomenon for European languages spoken in the colonies to stop in time, while metropolitan versions in Europe to evolve with time, and they become different dialects
Here in Bergen, Norway, the former and in some sense also the current center of the dry-fish trade south, the local beer is called Hansa. "Kontor" is what we call an "office" in general. We are still really depending on grain, but also still have the enormously rich seas, specially in the north with the winter cod, that is fished away in the West-Atlantic. Edit: "Tyskebryggen" means "Germans Wharf", and is the traditional city center.
Brilliant how small/medium towns and almost commoners and merchants could dictate with such a force that even kings buckled.!! These are the small pieces in history that complete the puzzle.!! Amazing how logistics and economics could play such a crucial role.!! Brilliant job once again K&G 🙏🙏
Great Video, I grew up near Greifswald which is still officially called a Hansestadt, just as many other cities in northern Germany. You can still see the wealth of the Hanse, as there are huge churches and typical merchant houses. Greifswald, Stralsund, Rostock and Lübeck are really charming cities and always worth a trip.
I was born in Zwolle, a town which still prides itself in being a 'Hanseatic City', even though that has lost all its meaning. Nevertheless, because of this historical connection with other Hanseatic cities like Tallinn, the Estonian government set up a consulate in Zwolle a few years ago.
On the license plates of many north German cities there is an additional „H“, which has no obvious connection to the city-name. It stands for Hanseatic because their official names are Hanseatic city of Lübeck/ Bremen/ Hamburg/ Rostock and so on. Very important to their identity to this day
The hours I spend on the game Patrician II. setting up automatic trade routes. Loved Stockholm for it's iron production. This video certainly brings back a lot of memories.
In Patrician III, at the start I usually bought tools from Lubeck and then sold them to the "Rostock-Stettin-Gdansk-Thorn" route. Good way to make easy money.
Great video! Together with video about the importance of Egypt in Roman trade with India, this is my new favorite video. Love non-war, non-battle videos that focus on economy and trade.
Wish they'd make a modern update of the Patrician III game, applying even more politics, history and scope to its already classic brilliance. It's such a fun setting for an excellent and epic trading game.
Fun fact, "Rat" and "raten" are cognates of the English word "read". The original meaning of the English word was "to counsel, to advise", hence why it appeared (in its old form) in lots of Anglo-Saxon personal names such as Æþelræd. Later on it took on the meaning of "interpret words on a page"
@@aaronmarks9366 Maybe the the original meaning was to "counsel/advise" those who could not read, since literacy was originally only for elites in those times...
Well done guys, keep it up with this economic merchant superpower content. They really played a great deal of role in shaping the world as well throughout the ages and seems general people understand less about them. I think VOC or perhaps Italian merchant republics (Genoa, Venice, etc) documentary from your POV could be really good ones to keep this momentum going
For a long time I've been deeply curious about the history of this league, but lacking time for a proper research nor knowing good books on the topic has been a big problem for me. Thanks for telling in a not too long nor too short format all this thins we're all interested on this channel. I deeply love your work!
I remember learning a little bit about the Hanseatic league from that game "Patricians"; it was a fun little trade route and city building game, a little simplistic, but I enjoyed my time with it.
Thanks for covering this, it´s immensly important for the Nordic regions history, here in Denmark we´re taught to hate them for basicly buying up our land in periods setting up a false regency and exploiting our potential tax revenue lmao
Dont demand payment for trade through the danish strate and you dont get your capital burned down. And to be fair Denmark did start the war by sacking a hanseatic city on Gotland. It wasnt only the Hanse after all that declared war on Denmark following that.
In Sweden(and I assume in Denmark as well) the world league still has a lot of negative connotations and are often associated with criminal enterprises. For example a gang of thieves are called a "robber's league".
You can even see it in the architecture. I studied in Wismar, when I was young. Was later sent for a two week work trip to Bruges and a week after this to Malmo in Sweden. When I arrived at the mainplace of the old town in Malmo, it just looked like a bigger Bruges. Lots of similarities in the Hansa Towns.
I literaly just learned,( though only very briefly)about the Hanseatic League in my AP Euro history class. We are currently covering the renaissence. I just started my sophomore, (2nd) year of highschool a week ago. Anyways, thanks for all the amazing videos. I have learned so much by watching your videos.
Glad to see some good content on this kind of stuff! id love to see a follow up video about the decline of the League, and just pick up where this one left off on the story.
I really like these kind of videos. We know it takes a lot of time and hard work to make these videos. Love from Sri Lanka. Your channel makes videos different from other channels . Your huge fan from Sri Lanka.
Rostock and Wismar, beautiful cities in my beloved Mecklenburg ❤ Lübeck and Hamburg, the towns that feel most like home outside of Mecklenburg. Honestly, everyone should visit these cities, beautiful historic old towns. But what i am recognizing is that wismar and rostock have been misplaced on the map, probably due to the close proximity to each other
There is a fanatastic, modern and interactive museum about the Hanseatic League in Lübeck (Europäisches Hansemuseum). I can highly recommend it for everyone visiting the beautiful city or with intrest in the Hanse. And it should be no problem for English speakers (and I think Swedish, Russian and French too).
Forgot to mention the white gold of that time, , Lubeck was one of the biggest producers, and salt was used to conservate meat and fish. Another important thing forgot to mention is the wool trade with Italy. Hansa trader sent most of the wool produced from England and Scotland. The direct trade with english ships to Italy was a hard blow for hansa traders. After England, Flander made direct trade to Italy. Italy was selling finish wool products, and was soo rich times for them, until England made their own machinery, with their craftsman.
Thank you from Tokyo! I lived in Nuremberg in the late 70s/early 80s and often heard of the castle town being a "free city" that was somehow connected to the Hanseatic League. I would love to know more.
While Nuremberg was not a Hanseatic city per se, it was also a very important trading city on the route between the Mediterranean (esp. Venice) and the Hansa league where goods from the Orient were traded to the North. Like many of these super-wealthy German trading cities, Nuremberg became a "Free Imperial City", meaning that it essentially governed itself and was only subject to the Emperor, who very rarely interfered with the city's business. Nuremberg had additional prestige due to the presence of the Imperial castle where the crown jewels of the HRE were kept (now in Vienna).
As a (former, or more correctly not working as one) German Historian I firmly approve of your already very well researched format expanding into other important fields ofhistory! Best regards Raoul G. Kunz
First time I learned of the Hanseatic League existence was in the 10th grade History classes - as well as of the Carolingian Empire. It was truly fascinating to me, and reinforced my idea of the European flourishing economic life of the XII and XIII centuries through the establishment of the fairs and revival of long distance trading routes - something lost with the fall of the West Roman Empire almost a millenium back. As a Portuguese, I'd like to think that the quick mention in this video to Lisbon was not by accident: as long as in 1293, king D. Dinis founded the _Bolsa dos Mercadores_ (Merchants Bourse), a mutualistic association created to cover losses from the shipping of goods back and forth from Portugal to France, Flanders and England. It was first created in the city of Porto though, the shipment from which the famous Port Wine took its name, since the wine itself does not come from Porto, but from my native region of Trás-os-Montes.
I once played (and thoroughly enjoyed) this one European board game called Hansa Teutonica, about German merchants. Nice to finally learn some of the historical context behind it!
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A series on mughal-maratha wars would be appreciated. Much love kings and general.
Make a video about Gempei War and Catalan Company
Very good, but the League did not exist all on it's own. Most important was the trade routes through the Swiss from Venice, and by ship from Venice. Most important in this trade, though not necessarily of great volumes, was the literature. Venice had the sole right to trade in books gotten from places like Alexandria. No coincidence that the Reformation blossomed along the trade routes, from the Upper and Lower Palatinates as well as the Eastern shores of England and throughout the areas of the Hansa League. Of course, events in Spain, particularly the exodus of the Jews, also contributed in many ways. But again, the role of the Hansa trade routes was a key element of the spread of new ideas in both the Reformation and the Renaissance.
mate its not the Rat council, Rat is german and literaly means Council, Lübeck was ruled by the Stadtrat or city council.
otherwise a great video tho
Please if you could, make videos about Seven Years War. Also I couldn't find anything about Battle of Waterloo in your channel. Much appreciated.
I really like the idea of videos going on about economic history - it’s every bit as important as warfare, and far less understood.
Certainly made me understand why my local citys (Bergen) emblem looks so much like Lübeck's
Economics is the reason for warfare.
"it’s every bit as important as warfare"... I don't agree on that. It is far more important, often being the reason for war, but also more often than not, what drives the societies forward.
@@MrBandholm Honestly, warfare could also be argued for driving society "forward" too.
@@marksmang894 Absolutely, it is one of the main driving forces of implementing new technology and often adds to new ways of thinking.
But war takes too much focus in history (even if it is by far the most interesting subject for us all). Compared with trade, and economic development, war is rare. Battles are even rarer.
If you live in Western Europe (to pick a broadly defined but limited geografic location), there hasn't been a war that affected the general population for the past 70 years, even the cold war was more an armed peace than a peaceful war. Yet Western Europe has made great leaps forward on pretty much every positive scale we can measure. Some of it can be said to be fueled by war ofc, but overall it has really been an issue of trade and economics.
Watching this in Bergen, Norway while having a Hansa beer.
Is it a good beer?
@@bonefetcherbrimley7740 Not bad at all!
I just bought pack of Hansaplast wound bandages.
@@bonefetcherbrimley7740 it is an ok 🍺.
Beautiful
There's a book called "The German Hansa" by Philippe Dollinger and it talks about everything this video talked about but in obviously greater detail so any of you who loved this video like me should get this book. There's also a book about the successes of the Dutch Republic's trade power called "Dutch Primacy in World Trade" by Jonathan I. Israel so I'm hoping Kings and Generals makes a future Economic History video for that too.
Does Hansa mean a bird?
ben jij toevallig Nederlands
Nice try, Philippe Dollinger
I know Israel did like the comprehensive research on the Eighty Years War so I see his work being referenced quite a bit.
@@procrastin8er39 If he's trying to promote his work on yt 51 years after being published then much respect for tenacity!
I'm from Lübeck and the Hanseatic League still plays a dominant role in our city's self-image. The official name is actually Hansestadt (Hansa City) Lübeck. Likewise Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock and countless other cities in Northern Germany. Great Video!
That's amazing. Love it
Yeah I'm from Zwolle in the Netherlands. We still identify as a hanseatic city to the extent of one of the main town squares being named "Lübeckplein".
I heard the German airline Lufthansa is named after the League.
Hi, I'm from Hessen and something in this video irritates me. They are talking about Lübecks rat (example at 14:40 ). Do they mean Rat as in Council or is there actually a titel that sounds like that? At another point they were talking about Lübecks rats making decisions, and that sounds so wrong ... It is a sentence where I guess it means Lübecks Council Members. But why not say so. XD
@@TheUltimateUndead Yeah, he means Rat as in council,spelled with a long "a".
Just when you think the 14th century is barren of good resources for your students. You drop this! The maps, sound effects and epic narration get the kids hooked every time.
This is great! Was recently getting frustrated over the lack of good videos on the Hanseatic League on RUclips. Your timing is absolutely fantastic 😂😁 Good work!
M Laser History has a FANTASTiC video delving into what a young Hansa merchant might get into on a regular day! He even uses the perspective of one of the overseas merchant quarters in Norway.
@@tbobsleding9149 That video is bloody fantastic. Anybody interested in economic history should watch it.
It is so fascinating that economic warfare even way before the industrial revolution was so real and at some junctures more effective than armed warfare. Im loving this economic history series. Thanks as always k&g
The shinanigans some trade cities pulled is redicilous. People really underestimate the power of trade cities at the end of the middle ages, early modern period. For example the flamish city of Ghent literally started a one city rebellion against the duke of Burgundy....who controlled the neatherlands, Belgium and eastern france in essence. An the duke nearly went bankrupt mustering an army to subdue this single city that mustered an army of 10.000 men. Ghent was defeated, but the fact the could go one on one with one of the wealthiest dukes the time period is pretty impressive. The flandern trade area was only rivaled by northern Italy. Well...at least until the cloth trade collapsed and Flanders lost its most important export...
@@noobster4779 The collapse of the Flemish cities was mainly caused by the Dutch Revolt tho. The Flemish traders migrated in large numbers to Holland where they were one of the main causes for the Dutch Golden Age
@@noobster4779 Flandern is like the cradle of modern European history. You find it everywhere, in Shakespeare's plays, economic history and two weeks ago I visited a museum with art from the beginning of the 20th century and many paintings were about war in or for Flanders. Crazy interesting.
There's a play by Friedrich Schiller, "Don Carlos", where Flanders is used as a poetic device for freedom. "Remember Flanders" are the last words of the revolutionary character in the play.
This was a refreshing break from the videos focusing purely on battle.
Im from the Swedish island of Gotland. The Hanseatic league is a big part of our history. Very nice video.
I'm from Karlstad and you're right the Hansan was very influential and a time of prosperity for Sweden 🇸🇪♥️🇩🇪
Wow. I always love Kings and Generals material, but this video was absolutely great! I really enjoy the multilayered description, going from the diplomatic relations, to the routes themselve and the wares traded - shifting from a bird's eye view to a first-person view (what it was like to be a merchant). History books are oftentimes just either one or the other: either dynasties and geography or "the daily life of ..." . What a treat!
One of their best videos in my opinion
Fun fact: The last three remaining Hanseatic cities to this day have a signifier of this heritage on their respective license plates on cars: HB - Hansestadt Bremen, HH - Hansestadt Hamburg, and HL - Hansestadt Lübeck
There are a LOT more German cities with hanseatic license plates such as Rostock and Wismar
@@simonpantermuller6997 That may well be the case, I just haven't encountered those so far. I just stuck with those I have already seen for myself.
@@simonpantermuller6997
That, however, is only the case since German reunification, when Eastern Germany adopted the western license plate system.
Not to forget that Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen were independent still after 1806 and when the Reich was founded, they were states of the new Reich contributing the red colour to the new flag. And even now Hamburg and Bremen are federal city states along with larger states like Bavvaria, Brandenburg or Hessen.
You forgot the cities of Wismar (HWI), Rostock (HRO), Stralsund (HST) and Greifswald (HGW), which also have the H for Hanseatic city in their license plates. After the reunification of Germany, these cities were given the honor of officially calling themselves Hanseatic cities again, which was somehow not honored in the GDR.
"Individual merchants usually didn't just galavant around..."
I feel as if my Patrician II/III strategy is being mocked.
But Patrician III is awesome.
Ha, ha, I played III so much. Loved it.
So you're saying the people of Bergen are starving and I have a cog full of grain? *rubs hands*
At the start I usually bought tools from Lubeck and then sold them to the "Rostock-Stettin-Gdansk-Thorn" route. Good way to make easy money.
@@martinn.6082 But then a pirate just so happens to be in your way
The Dutch take over of the Baltic trade is what made their golden age and empire possible. It was their most profitable traderoute by far
I thought the East Indies would have been their most profitable trade route from the 1500s.
@@Dave_Sisson Yeah, that is a common myth. The Dutch were already quite rich before they went to the East Indies in the 1590s. While the Dutch also profited from the Portuguese trading routes in the 1500s by acting as middlemen in Europe, it was dwarfed by the Baltic Trade. Even for most of the 17th century the Baltic Trade stayed more important to the Dutch then the American and Asian trade routes. In Dutch it is still known as the "Mother Trade"
@@Raadpensionaris And even trade between Europe and the indies wasn't very profitable, it's better than returning empty, but most of the profit there was made by taking over existing asian regional trade routes
@@Dave_Sisson A single trade venture to Indonesia brought more wealth than a venture to Riga however ventures took half a year and arrivals were not guaranteed. Trade routes on the Baltic were shorter so more trade venture took place.
The trade in timber, wool and grain in the North was far bigger than the trade in spice.
@@ReapNL Truth, VOC made the most profit by facilitating trade between kingdoms in Indonesia and India and between Japan and China. I would say that two thirds of the trade ventures began and ended in Asia.
It is important to note that the development of the cog played an instrumental part in allowing these cities to form the prosperous trade routes of the north. A large enough vessel for various goods to be carried, but with a shallow draft that allowed it to navigate the treacherous waters of the Danish Straits, connecting the North and Baltic seas.
Hansa is criminally underrated. Thank you for this.
Wow, I had always thought the various East India Companies were the first commercial based groups with enormous power. I was wrong
the venetians would like to have a word
@@robertquirijns And the Hittites and Phoenecians too…
Dutch east india company was before eic
In Indian ocean trade there were huge Individual groups and association some aligned within their national borders as well as from across different borders.
@@ShubhamMishrabro The EIC(1600) is 2 years older actually than the VOC(1602) but the VOC was far more succesfull at first and dwarfed the EIC up until the late 18th century.
Hansas were a total beast. +2 adjacency from commercial hubs, aqueducts, canals and dams. Then with a Coal plant and craftsmen you can build the Forbidden Palace in like 2 turns
Plus they control the ring line!
Which game? Civ?
@@kagtkalem7115 civ6
The one thing really missing from this portrayal is the fact of life in the fraternity. You could not join the Hanse, you had to be brought up within it. They had their own culture and customs and were closed to outsiders - creating the bonds of trust necessary for trade and cooperation on this scale. The initiation rituals were so rough that they were sometimes even fatal, which shows the almost cultish nature of the Hanse.
thank you for telling this, it truly went beyond a mere trade agreement for the people involved
This channel is now Extensive and ripe enough for Tv series.
The Topics, coverage, Graphics, presentation, oration and consistency are all marvelous. Its uniqueness guarantees a fan base for the series.
Thanks!
From Visby here, I remember traveling to Lubeck and Rostock in my teens and while most things where slightly foreign to me it was always a comforting feeling of familiarity in the architecture from inner old town Visby where the German traders lived. Seeing the same kind of houses in these larger German cities... yea just a shame the Dane had to spoil that. I'd also like to point out that thx to the Hansa a few old German sounding words are still present in modern day Gotlandic. Yes the Gotlandic dialect is nearly a language of it's own and not many swedes understand it. I assume if you know Swedish, Danish (cus we where Danish for like 300 years after that) and German one would understand the older form of this dialect... that is just a guess tho. Thank you for this video Kings and Generals it's extremely rare for me to get history that i consider part of my personal heritage like this on youtube. Also i don't think i'l ever get this opportunity like this ever again so here goes, Greetings fellow hansastat brothers and sisters :D
That’s quite interesting.
Since I am from Northern Germany, I know German of course but also understand Low German, the language spoken in the league (and in many north German areas until today). Furthermore I speak Swedish and Danish, so I need to check out if I can understand your Visbyan dialect.
The links between culture and history always amazes me.
Greetings are send across the Baltic Sea.
@@fikro14 Awesome, so i'm not originally from Visby but from a farm like half an hour away tho i live in Visby today. Gotlandic used to have almost as many local variations as there are churches on Gotland... look that up, seriously it's a lot of them. It feels like Visby folk have never had a proper Gotlandic dialect during my lifetime. That said whenever i meet someone from Visby on the mainland then i actually hear that they do have one. I grew up with my my dads parents around on a daily basis and as a young kid i really liked grandfather so i took after his dialect and he was from the southern parts of Gotland where they according to most have the most challenging form of the modern dialect. I don't quite speak like they do down there but i would understand more then most if i would walk into a sauna full of old men down there then most.
I live in Münster, which was also part of the Hansa. In a street called "Salzstraße" ("Salt Street") are paving stones from the different cities that were part of the Hansa. You can find many hints to the Hansa throughout Germany, eventhough it dates back to the middle ages, which is pretty cool!
I'm from Hansestadt (Hansa City) Rostock and I was very amused to find Hansa Kontors in Brugge, Bergen and Tallinn for example. Even our football club is called FC Hansa Rostock. We are still proud of this heritage. Thanks for the video. I would like to see more.
In Riga a street and a neighbourhood where the old Hanseaticwarehouses were, is still called Hansa, also there's an annual Hanseatic medieval celebration in honor of the league. Quite cool to watch about this medieval version of basically EU
1. Riga area wasn't Slavic-speaking before its founding as it was the home of Finnic-speaking Livonians and Baltic-speaking Letts.
2. Northern Estonia was under Denmark back then and should have been coloured as such.
The best videogame adaptation from this era is definitely the Patrician saga, more concretely Patrician 3. Is a bit dated, but if you're interested in Hanseatic history and commerce I wholeheartedly recommend it!
Back in the 80s I spent months playing "Hanse" on my C-64.
The game still holds up today!
As someome who grew up in Kaunas, Lithuania. I vividly remember how fun and vibrant the Hansa day festivals would be. One of the best time to visit the city.
Representing the Netherlands! The Hanze league is not well known here and heavily undervalued at schools. Nice video!
Man, I've been in love with the Hanseatic League since I was a sophomore in high school! I've even played hundreds of hours in a video game series called The Patrician.
In the netherlands we learn about the hansa in highschool history class, but in the context of the what the dutch, as their successor in many ways, would become. Enlightening to learn more about it from this video!
I had no idea about this part of history and found it quite entertaining and enlightening. Good work guys!
A linguistic a-ha moment: Now i know why when we go to work, or the Office, we say we go to the Kontor - and not the Byrå or Bureau - up here in Norway.
lol, in the Netherlands we say we are going to the kantoor for work
'Kontor' or 'kantoor' = office. Comes from French 'compter' = 'to count'. :)
@@wulfsragar South Africans also copied it from the Dutch. Didn't even bother changing the spelling 😄
@@privatebaldric8767 Afrikaans IS Dutch. Just like Quebecois is french, and American English is English. Afrikaans is basically a 16th century version of Dutch with elements from Frisian and low German.
It's pretty normal phenomenon for European languages spoken in the colonies to stop in time, while metropolitan versions in Europe to evolve with time, and they become different dialects
Here in Bergen, Norway, the former and in some sense also the current center of the dry-fish trade south, the local beer is called Hansa. "Kontor" is what we call an "office" in general. We are still really depending on grain, but also still have the enormously rich seas, specially in the north with the winter cod, that is fished away in the West-Atlantic. Edit: "Tyskebryggen" means "Germans Wharf", and is the traditional city center.
Funny. I thought hansa existed in Moscow’s post apocalyptic metro system
Go back to Polis.
It is named after the medieval Hansa . I believe that's actually stated in the books
@@pp-wo1sd It is stated in the books.
You fooool....
Lmfao
"Oligarchic rat council" - that's so funny. 🐀
(Rat means council in German)
Bundesrat is basically Federal Council right?
@@marloyorkrodriguez9975 Yep, exactly. :)
They had business to discuss, yes yes (Edit: For those unaware - this is a reference to Skaven Council of Thirteen from Warhammer Fantasy)
@@JohnDoe-fc4hx I really hope this isn't some antisemitic joke. I'd hate to see another Wardruna fan like that.
Martin N. It’s a war hammer reference Skaven factions
Brilliant how small/medium towns and almost commoners and merchants could dictate with such a force that even kings buckled.!! These are the small pieces in history that complete the puzzle.!! Amazing how logistics and economics could play such a crucial role.!!
Brilliant job once again K&G 🙏🙏
Great Video,
I grew up near Greifswald which is still officially called a Hansestadt, just as many other cities in northern Germany.
You can still see the wealth of the Hanse, as there are huge churches and typical merchant houses.
Greifswald, Stralsund, Rostock and Lübeck are really charming cities and always worth a trip.
I was born in Zwolle, a town which still prides itself in being a 'Hanseatic City', even though that has lost all its meaning. Nevertheless, because of this historical connection with other Hanseatic cities like Tallinn, the Estonian government set up a consulate in Zwolle a few years ago.
On the license plates of many north German cities there is an additional „H“, which has no obvious connection to the city-name. It stands for Hanseatic because their official names are Hanseatic city of Lübeck/ Bremen/ Hamburg/ Rostock and so on. Very important to their identity to this day
You people are killing it!
I really love these Economics/History videos. More interesting than battles and wars IMO.
I've been waiting for a video of the Hanseatic league from you guys since you started !!!!! Dropping everything right now
The hours I spend on the game Patrician II. setting up automatic trade routes. Loved Stockholm for it's iron production. This video certainly brings back a lot of memories.
In Patrician III, at the start I usually bought tools from Lubeck and then sold them to the "Rostock-Stettin-Gdansk-Thorn" route. Good way to make easy money.
Great video! Together with video about the importance of Egypt in Roman trade with India, this is my new favorite video. Love non-war, non-battle videos that focus on economy and trade.
the art for this channel is next level holy crap guys gratz!
Wish they'd make a modern update of the Patrician III game, applying even more politics, history and scope to its already classic brilliance. It's such a fun setting for an excellent and epic trading game.
There is a Patrician IV. But it's massively dumbed down and pretty awful altogether. Patrician III really was the peak of the series.
@@catriona_drummond I would have tried _Patrician IV_ but my laptop from 2016 is too weak to support a game like that.
I didn't know about that game. I'm glad to learn about it. I really love complex historical simulation games
@@1685Violin stick with Patrician 3, the 4th one is pretty awful, only thing that improved is the graphics, everything else jumped off a cliff.
@@xKinjax where do you live
"Oligarchic rat council", I think we have that in America.
Rat is german for council
Hah something like that
@@greenhell3029 Which makes it one of my favorite German words
Fun fact, "Rat" and "raten" are cognates of the English word "read". The original meaning of the English word was "to counsel, to advise", hence why it appeared (in its old form) in lots of Anglo-Saxon personal names such as Æþelræd. Later on it took on the meaning of "interpret words on a page"
@@aaronmarks9366 Maybe the the original meaning was to "counsel/advise" those who could not read,
since literacy was originally only for elites in those times...
Well done guys, keep it up with this economic merchant superpower content. They really played a great deal of role in shaping the world as well throughout the ages and seems general people understand less about them.
I think VOC or perhaps Italian merchant republics (Genoa, Venice, etc) documentary from your POV could be really good ones to keep this momentum going
For a long time I've been deeply curious about the history of this league, but lacking time for a proper research nor knowing good books on the topic has been a big problem for me. Thanks for telling in a not too long nor too short format all this thins we're all interested on this channel. I deeply love your work!
I remember learning a little bit about the Hanseatic league from that game "Patricians"; it was a fun little trade route and city building game, a little simplistic, but I enjoyed my time with it.
Been waiting for this one for a long time. Nice job as always!
The rate at which you are giving videos without compromising on quality is really great. The entire team deserves a shoutout
From Amsterdam, thank you! 👑👑🙏
Thanks for covering this, it´s immensly important for the Nordic regions history, here in Denmark we´re taught to hate them for basicly buying up our land in periods setting up a false regency and exploiting our potential tax revenue lmao
Dont demand payment for trade through the danish strate and you dont get your capital burned down.
And to be fair Denmark did start the war by sacking a hanseatic city on Gotland. It wasnt only the Hanse after all that declared war on Denmark following that.
@@noobster4779 that is true, it was also other events too not just that
In Sweden(and I assume in Denmark as well) the world league still has a lot of negative connotations and are often associated with criminal enterprises. For example a gang of thieves are called a "robber's league".
And Gustav vasa got help from hansan to thow of the danish tyrrany.
They are right to teach you that
This was immensely interesting, huge thanks!
I had gained some basic knowledge of the League via various historical-related strategy games, but am SHOCKED it lasted until so recently!
I love the economic history videos on this channel.
You can even see it in the architecture. I studied in Wismar, when I was young. Was later sent for a two week work trip to Bruges and a week after this to Malmo in Sweden. When I arrived at the mainplace of the old town in Malmo, it just looked like a bigger Bruges. Lots of similarities in the Hansa Towns.
One of my favourite matters of study. The video is amazing! thank you, great job!
Danke!
I literaly just learned,( though only very briefly)about the Hanseatic League in my AP Euro history class. We are currently covering the renaissence. I just started my sophomore, (2nd) year of highschool a week ago. Anyways, thanks for all the amazing videos. I have learned so much by watching your videos.
I honestly did not expect this region, niceeee.
BTW, please cover Majorian if ever!
Glad to see some good content on this kind of stuff! id love to see a follow up video about the decline of the League, and just pick up where this one left off on the story.
So that's why lubeck is a trade node in EU4.
Great vid, would love more historical economy videos!
I'm originally from the area between Hamburg and Bremen and I'm interested in History, but even I learned things in this video. Great video.
Thats a nice surprise! I wasnt expecting to see an english video about the hanseatic league.
Love these economic videos
I really like these kind of videos. We know it takes a lot of time and hard work to make these videos. Love from Sri Lanka. Your channel makes videos different from other channels . Your huge fan from Sri Lanka.
Rostock and Wismar, beautiful cities in my beloved Mecklenburg ❤ Lübeck and Hamburg, the towns that feel most like home outside of Mecklenburg. Honestly, everyone should visit these cities, beautiful historic old towns. But what i am recognizing is that wismar and rostock have been misplaced on the map, probably due to the close proximity to each other
There is a fanatastic, modern and interactive museum about the Hanseatic League in Lübeck (Europäisches Hansemuseum). I can highly recommend it for everyone visiting the beautiful city or with intrest in the Hanse. And it should be no problem for English speakers (and I think Swedish, Russian and French too).
Average Venice fan
Vs
Average Hanseatic league enjoyer
More business related history like this please.
Enjoyed this video.👈🥇
I lived in Lübeck and i had the pleasure of visiting Hansemuseum they have there so awesome to hear somebody explain the importance of it
Forgot to mention the white gold of that time, , Lubeck was one of the biggest producers, and salt was used to conservate meat and fish. Another important thing forgot to mention is the wool trade with Italy. Hansa trader sent most of the wool produced from England and Scotland. The direct trade with english ships to Italy was a hard blow for hansa traders. After England, Flander made direct trade to Italy. Italy was selling finish wool products, and was soo rich times for them, until England made their own machinery, with their craftsman.
"Wine up and down the Rhine"
An excellent phrase for a song lyric!
I remember studying the hanseatic league in college but is as been such a long time...thank you and great job
Thank you from Tokyo! I lived in Nuremberg in the late 70s/early 80s and often heard of the castle town being a "free city" that was somehow connected to the Hanseatic League. I would love to know more.
While Nuremberg was not a Hanseatic city per se, it was also a very important trading city on the route between the Mediterranean (esp. Venice) and the Hansa league where goods from the Orient were traded to the North. Like many of these super-wealthy German trading cities, Nuremberg became a "Free Imperial City", meaning that it essentially governed itself and was only subject to the Emperor, who very rarely interfered with the city's business. Nuremberg had additional prestige due to the presence of the Imperial castle where the crown jewels of the HRE were kept (now in Vienna).
Made a backpacking trip from Bremen to reval Last year and saw a lot of museums on the subject, I can say this documentary is a very accurate summary!
This was a nice video, not just in it's original content but also the way the video is made!
Loved it!
This makes me remember the good old days of Patrician 3
At the start I usually bought tools from Lubeck and then sold them to the "Rostock-Stettin-Gdansk-Thorn" route. Good way to make easy money.
@@manuelvirgulti6757 hahaha you name It!
This is one of my favorite videos of yours
Love these videos about trade and economics in history: it’s the driving force behind essentially everything
I love some economic history. Great to learn about a new subject.
Great video on such a non-mainstream topic!
This is a fascinating subject and perhaps your best video yet.
3:15 Riga was founded by Finnish tribe of Livs, long before 12 century.
I also really appreciate the focus on economics, it's sometimes hard to find that information from these eras :)
Great video! 👍 Greetings from the old Hanseatic city of Soest (modern Germany), known as Susa in Old Low German
Wow this is an incredible video, thank you for making it. I’ve never heard of this league at all, and I’ve been a fan of history my whole life
the art work is in a new level
I love the video as well as the artwork you've used to illustrate events! Great work, as always
Suddenly feel the desire to play Patrician III lol
Nice episode 👍
you're not the only one!
At the start I usually bought tools from Lubeck and then sold them to the "Rostock-Stettin-Gdansk-Thorn" route. Good way to make easy money.
Wow. Hanseatic league is undercovered and this video is amazing.
Fantastic video, thanks so much for making it!
As a (former, or more correctly not working as one) German Historian I firmly approve of your already very well researched format expanding into other important fields ofhistory!
Best regards
Raoul G. Kunz
First time I learned of the Hanseatic League existence was in the 10th grade History classes - as well as of the Carolingian Empire.
It was truly fascinating to me, and reinforced my idea of the European flourishing economic life of the XII and XIII centuries through the establishment of the fairs and revival of long distance trading routes - something lost with the fall of the West Roman Empire almost a millenium back.
As a Portuguese, I'd like to think that the quick mention in this video to Lisbon was not by accident: as long as in 1293, king D. Dinis founded the _Bolsa dos Mercadores_ (Merchants Bourse), a mutualistic association created to cover losses from the shipping of goods back and forth from Portugal to France, Flanders and England. It was first created in the city of Porto though, the shipment from which the famous Port Wine took its name, since the wine itself does not come from Porto, but from my native region of Trás-os-Montes.
Being from the hanseatic city of Hamburg I appreciate your work.
I once played (and thoroughly enjoyed) this one European board game called Hansa Teutonica, about German merchants. Nice to finally learn some of the historical context behind it!
I loved Patrician III. Glad to see a video about the Hansa.
At the start I usually bought tools from Lubeck and then sold them to the "Rostock-Stettin-Gdansk-Thorn" route. Good way to make easy money.
@@manuelvirgulti6757 Iron goods from Lubek to Oslo. Also like to store things to sell in times of scarcity.
Anything related to Baltics and Estonia, has me with an extra set of ears listening and eyes watching (somehow...)