The

The Welcome to a history of Europe get battles.

The Livonian Wars Part 2 of 4

In the medieval period, Scandinavia was a political backwater.

Denmark was the most prosperous and strongest

and strongest politically of the three crowns,

the two others being Sweden and Norway.

However, they were all overshadowed in terms of power and influence

by a naval merchant alliance known as the Hanseatic League,

also known as the Hansa. Growing from a few

North German towns in the late 1100s, the Hansa were originally founded by a collection

of market towns and merchant guilds to protect their mutual trading interests. They went on to dominate

Baltic maritime trade for over three centuries along the

coasts of Northern Europe and through their wealth became a major political power. Their network

of towns stretched from the west, the east coast of England across the North Sea, and the Baltic

as far as Novgorod in the east.

The Henseatic cities had their own legal system

and operated their own armies for mutual protection and aid.

They had no central authority, but the official capital was in the German city of Lubeck, in northern Germany.

Some other important member cities were burned city of Lubeck in northern Germany.

Some other important member cities were Bergen in Norway, Visby on the Baltic island of Gotland,

the German ports of Hamburg, Bremen and Rustok, Danzig, which is modern-day Gdensk in Poland,

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