Hanseatic League

American  

noun

1. a medieval league of towns of northern Germany and adjacent countries for the promotion and protection of commerce.

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Hanseatic League British  

noun

1. Also called: Hansa.   Hanse.  a commercial association of towns in N Germany formed in the mid-14th century to protect and control trade. It was at its most powerful in the 15th century

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Hanseatic League

In the 13th Century, the port was one of the most important in England and traded wool, cloth and salt with the Hanseatic League of central and northern Europe.

From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2021

Starting in the twelfth century, the German city of Lubeck became the capital of the Hanseatic League, a group of cities engaged in trade that came together to regulate exchange and maintain monopolies on goods.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

It’s not Google, Apple or Amazon; it’s more like Germany’s medieval Hanseatic League, a group of separate entities joined to protect and promote their individual interests.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2019

At its zenith in the 15th century, the Hanseatic League boasted about 200 cities across seven countries, flexing its economic might across Europe, imposing blockages to promote its interests, and even waging wars.

From Slate ● Apr. 11, 2018

And yet the motto of the Hanseatic League said: Navigare necesse est, vivere non necesse: It is necessary to sail the seas, but not to live.

From Reflections on War and Death by Freud, Sigmund