Hamburg joins the Hanseatic expansion

1342

The northern German port league, founded informally decades earlier, formalized relations with the Baltic trading cities of Lubeck, Rostock, and Danzig. Hamburg's access to North Sea routes complemented the League's Baltic dominance, creating a commercial network spanning two seas. The Hansa would dominate Baltic trade for two centuries, building kontors at Bergen, Bruges, London, and Novgorod.