Hanseatic League Presentation

Group Lubeck

The Hanse has one distinct important historical marker: the salt road. The members (countries) that were apart of the Hanseatic League led a different life from that of the citizens under noble sovereignty. They possessed their own parliament with laws such as the "Law of Lubeck" that protected the league, merchants, and citizens. These laws were followed even though these countries were not one single uniform government. Many of these nations also lacked a government other than that of the league. The participating cities took precautions to protect the merchants by building lighthouses for the seas, trained pilots, and made sure that merchants always traveled in pairs for better protection from pirates, robbers, and bandits. The most famous trade route was the "Salt Road" which went from Lubeck to Hamburg. There were several others though as the league covered 170 different cities, and countries. A major part of the trades were done over seas, and because of this they had to build efficient ships that could withstand the threat of pirates, and transport lots of goods at a time. These ships, Baltic Cog, had flat bottoms which made it possible for them to sail in shallow waters, and center mounted rudders (which was an advanced technology), had a fitted removable keel which allowed for repairs to be made easier, it could also hold lots of cargo (50-200 lasts) - this was more than the viking's ships could hold which ranged from about 20 lasts. Each city, under Hanse laws, had their own aid, protection, and army. The merchants never signed or made contracts, therefore they only went off of verbal agreements, they kept to their word earning terms like "truth" and "trust". The fall of the Hanseatic League began in 1361, but the king of Denmark. He had decided to control the areas he had once given the Hanse cities privileges to fish in. The Hanse became upset headed to the Scania coastline. The Hanse fleet was caught by the Danish fleet at sea and were forced to surrender. The Hanse had to give the revenue from the fishers to the king. The king eventually ran out of support, and had no other way but to sign a treaty that gave the Hanseatic League merchants full rights.


Contributors:

Katherine Bingen, Jeff Foster, Slade Simpson, Brandi Vistad, Chanae Peterson, Brian Madsen, and Parker Nicastri. 

The Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic league, which is also known as Hansa, was a large organization of merchants that thrived within their market towns along the coast of Northern Europe. Hansa's reign lasted for 300 plus years and included 170 cities. The league started in the German city of Lubeck, stretching from the Baltic to the North Sea. One of the main trade routes that was utilized by the Hanseatic league was called the "Salt Road". Salt was a very sought after by the merchants to preserve their goods which is why the salt road was a common trade path. The salt road wasn't a path between Keil (where the salt was mined) and Lubeck as many would think but rather it was a path between Hamburg and Lubeck. This trading road was extremely dangerous for the merchants which is why they made a point to always travel in larger groups. Yes, the road was a risk but it was a risk these traders had to take in order to be successful. This traveling together allowed for alliances on the road and at home as well. In hindsight, without the salt road, the Hanseatic league or Hansa may not have been the success it was.




Sources: http://www.historytoday.com/stephen-halliday/first-common-market-hanseatic-league
               http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=41994
               Date Visited: 10-17-14

Bavaria & Baden-Wurttemberg Group 6

Group #6- Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg

-Slade Simpson
-Brandi Vistad
-David Sufficool
-Calvin Smith
-Brentan Carkhuff
-Mustafa

Link to our Presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1V7Zu_0v0SeeGKI-Y9NTHN-NFx4DY9WNFgI4B3vygtQk/edit?usp=sharing

Research from every group member is on this presentation!

Expectations out of German 110

My expectations for this class, in a general sense, is to learn more about Germany. Pretty obvious right? Specifically, I would like to learn more about the German culture since I have German connections within my family. I think this class will be able to give me a good base of information about the country. It will also help my understanding of Europe, I believe that students here in the U.S. are extremely shorted on the amount of education we get about other areas of the world and after this class I would like to be able to be somewhat knowledgeable about some place else other than the United States. Last, but not least, I would like to have fun doing the learning in this class. I think learning is a lot easier if you enjoy doing it and I believe that German 110 can, and will be, a fun class!

-Slade Simpson