Livre - The Hansa

Hansa - Hanseatic Town - Hansa Cog- are terms which are familiar to anyone interested in northern European History. The Hanseatic period has left behind many traces: -the towns with their churches, town halls and patrician houses, a unique architectural flavor, and the ruins of mighty defences, -the town seals, public documents and chronicles, -the cogs, those one-masted sailing ships with their typical profile, and all the sagas and songs about the trade they plied and the escapades of their pirates, -the paintings and sculptures scattered along the coastal regions of the North and Baltic Seas. Hanseatic history is a chapter, not only in the history of northern and central Germany, but in that of other countries in the regions around those tow seas; the records of a Hanseatic past which still inspire the admirations of today's observers testify to the outstanding cultural accomplishment of Hanseatic burghers. What kind of people built those impressive towns five and six centuries ago ? What kind of life did they lead ? How did they work and where did they live ? Did they have access to education ? How did trade and seafaring influence their occupations and their character ? What role did church and religion play in their society ? How was their mentality expresses in their literature, music and visual arts ? And were they conscious of their own history ? This book seeks to answer those questions in words and in pictures. It sketches in outline the emergence and evolution of this extraordinary historical phenomenon, its heyday and its demise, demonstrating the international operation and influence of the Hansa which, first as a company of merchants and then as a League of towns, encouraged the economic unity of the lands around the North Sea and the Baltic.