Hanseatic League · 1159-1400

The Hanseatic League: merchants of the North

From Lübeck, German merchant towns build a trading network that stretches from London and Bruges to Bergen and Novgorod. Students follow the Hanseatic trade route, load a cog with herring, furs and grain, and see how merchants without a king could beat a kingdom.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
45 minutes
Ages
11–14
On the map
3 steps, AD 1300 to AD 1350
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

From Lübeck, German merchant towns build a trading network that stretches from London and Bruges to Bergen and Novgorod. Students follow the Hanseatic trade route, load a cog with herring, furs and grain, and see how merchants without a king could beat a kingdom.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Trace the main Hanseatic trade route on the map and name its four great foreign offices.
  • Describe the goods traded across the North Sea and the Baltic, and the ships that carried them.
  • Explain how a league of towns could defend its interests against kings, as in the war with Denmark of 1367-1370.
2

Explore the map

12 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1300

The trade route

Open the map in 1300 and turn on Trade Routes. Follow the Hanseatic League route from Novgorod to London. Which seas does it cross, and which towns lie on it?

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1241

Queen of the Hansa

Set the year to 1241 and turn on Historical Events. Find Hanseatic League Formed at Lübeck. Why was a port at the narrow neck between the North Sea and the Baltic so well placed?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1350

Trade carries plague

Move to 1350 and turn on Spreads: the Black Death. Watch it reach the Hanseatic ports. How did the trade network help the disease travel?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

14 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The Hansa had no king and no capital, only meetings of town delegates. How could such a league still be powerful?
  2. Herring and dried cod were in great demand in Catholic Europe. Why might fish be such valuable cargo?
  3. Hanseatic merchants abroad lived together in walled compounds such as the Steelyard in London. Why live apart from the locals?
  4. The league could stop all trade with a city that broke its rules. Why was that a strong weapon?
  5. Some German cities still call themselves "Hanseatic cities" today. Why might they be proud of that past?
4

Game round

9 min

Play Rule History as Mansa Musa, whose empire grew rich on trade routes across the Sahara in the same century. Afterwards, compare: what did the Hansa's merchants and Mali's rulers each do to protect their trade?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

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