The Hanseatic League Trivia Quiz

Answer: 1143

Lübeck achieved city status in 1143 and became one of the chief trading centres in Northern Europe. The Hanseatic League was founded in roughly around 1256 , although its origins are nebulous and cannot be dated precisely. Later many other cities united and Lübeck played the primary role. However, after the discovery of the "New World", the center of trade progressively shifted to the west, and eventually the Hanseatic League dissolved.

In its heyday (c. 1400-1500 or slightly later) Lübeck was the third largest city in Central Europe - after Cologne and Prague.

Answer: True

The German-speaking lands lacked a really effective central authority, and a key motive for the League's progress was the deficiency of a controlling central government to provide security for trade. In order to acquire joint defense, exclusive trading privileges, and, wherever achievable, trade monopoly, the towns eventually drew closer together. It was, in effect, a form of self-help.

Answer: Helsinki

The city of Helsinki was founded by King Gustavus Vasa of Sweden as a new trading post in southern Finland and as a rival to Tallinn (Reval) in Estonia, the Hanseatic city on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Finland. The city however never gained official Hanseatic trading status.

Answer: False

Actually it would have been Henry III and the city was London.

Answer: Klaus Störtebeker

Klaus Störtebeker, a former merchant created a pirate band that were called 'The Friends of God and Enemies of the World'. They sailed the Baltic and attacked and looted many ships and cities including a main trading league outpost, Bergen, in Norway. He was caught and executed in 1402.

Answer: Amsterdam

The Dutch were most often competing with the League in trading. There was even a conflict in 1441 and trade eventually began to migrate to the ports of Amsterdam and Antwerp.

Answer: True

THe Merchant cities would settle their disputes in Lübeck every three years, but eventually with the westward shift of some of the key trade routes, Hamburg began to play a more key role in many aspects of overseeing imports and exports.

Answer: Lübeck, Cologne, Brunswick and Danzig

The League had anywhere from 85 to 100 cities that were united and were arranged in four districts with Lübeck, Cologne, Danzig and Brunswick as their primary hubs.

Answer: After "The Thirty Years War," many of the Protestant traders lacked the money to keep their ships seaworthy

Although "The Thirty Years' War" (1618-48) and the ensuing Scandinavian conflicts did have of course harm effect on the League, religious affiliation and these wars weren't primary causes for its decline. In fact, Central Europe made a surprisingly quick recovery from the Thirty Years' War.

However, the westward shift in trade and the rise of effective and often protectionist nation-states on the Atlantic seaboard of Europe from the late Middle Ages onwards undermined the League's effectiveness and rationale.

Answer: 1669

There were many reasons that factored in such as the Dutch winning control of transporting commerce from the Baltic Sea to the west, which of course dealt a severe blow to Lübeck and thus, 1669 was the year of the league's last general assembly.

Interestingly, until 1879 Lübeck remained the seat of a special court that settled disputes between Free Cities of the Holy Roman Empire (till 1806), then of the German Confederation (1815-66) and finally of the German Reich (1871-78). However, by then the court had become an anomaly, as such cases could be dealt with by the higher German courts.