The Hanseatic League ruled over the Baltic Sea very much
as Venice ruled over the Adriatic. In spite of its monopolistic tendencies, so
opposed to the spirit of free intercourse between nations, the league did much
useful work by suppressing piracy and by encouraging the art of navigation.
Modern Germans look back to it as proof that their country can play a great
part on the seas. The Hanseatic merchants were also pioneers in the
half-barbarous lands of northern and eastern Europe, where they founded towns,
fostered industry, and introduced comforts and luxuries previously unknown.
Such services in advancing civilization were comparable to those performed by
the Teutonic Knights.
DECLINE OF THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE
After several centuries of usefulness the league lost its
monopoly of the Baltic trade and began to decline. Moreover the Baltic, like
the Mediterranean, sank to minor importance as a commercial center, after the
Portuguese had discovered the sea route to India and the Spaniards had opened
up the New World. City after city gradually withdrew from the league, till
only Hamburg, Lübeck, and Bremen remained. They are still called free and
independent cities, though now they form a part of the German Empire.
