If you are ever in the Hamburg area, I highly recommend making a day trip with the Regional train up to Lübeck to visit the Hanse Museum.
It's one of the most beautifully designed museums on a specific topic like this I've ever seen (it's also very accessible). The entire museum and all of its stations are translated into various languages by scanning a card you set up at the beginning, including customizing your information experience with certain topics you're particularly interested in (I chose naval architecture, if memory serves).
There's a cute coffee shop or two right there in the complex too, and the entirety of Lübeck is a beautiful, cozy area too. Many of the old Hanseatic buildings still stand as they were relatively untouched by the war.
Another hour in the same direction on the train takes you to the Travemünde beaches which are also gorgeous. Makes for a good day trip.
> The next year, Edward II reaffirmed Hansa merchants’ freedom from taxes, travel, and arrest in exchange for £1,000 (which would have been three percent of the Crown’s total annual tax revenues). Remarkably, he even promised that neither he nor subsequent kings would place new restrictions on the Hansa without their consent. These privileges ensured that Hanseatic merchants paid even lower tax rates than their English counterparts.
Autocracy and the absence of accountability (either financial or criminal) for the very wealthy is an age old problem that we still deal with.
How can people muster up the bile to be jealous and resentful of people who died hundreds of years ago? They are dust, you are alive. Do something with the fantastic gift of life while you still have it. Soon enough you will also be dust.
Hansa wasn’t a democracy or an autocracy — in my understanding, it was an entirely consensus-based organization. At the Bremen town hall, I learned about the tagfahrt, where they would wait for the representatives to come to consensus. Once they started the meeting, it would continue for days until they actually reached consensus.
In European Council proposal will only be adopted if all member states are in agreeance. Formal voting does not take place, the member states deliberate until they reach general agreement.
NATO is the same. Any Article consultations like Article 4, or 5 end with consensus. One country can water it down.
Consensus based does not mean equal. Big participants usually throw their weight around a lot.
When I was an exchange student in Germany, the host family had Hanse: Die Expedition[1] on their computer, which they explained to me but I also had to kind of feel my way through, not being completely fluent in German. You'd play as a merchant, sending out salt to other ports to trade for goods. Each turn was a year, and it would go through many generations, the goal being to contribute enough from your profits to build a cathedral.
Other things I remember:
- When you'd die, you'd pick an heir from your kids. They would be described as (sometimes you were supposed to understand as) being skilled at either fighting, exploring, or trading. If you didn't have an old enough one to pick, you'd have to pay a lot for some godparent to take over in the interim.
- You could raise capital by selling shares in your operation, but the more shares outstanding, the more interest (Zinsen) you'd have to pay. (You could also buy them back, but they'd be more expensive when you had a good year.)
- If you couldn't pay your obligations, you'd lose a turn to the Schuldturm (debtor's prison, lit. "debt tower").
- You could send explorers to find more lucrative ports, Novgorod being a good one.
- Depending on the weather, you might lose ships. Sometimes you wouldn't want to send any out, in which case it would warn you, "Keine Koggen auf der See! Zug wirklich beenden?" ("No cogs[2] on the sea! Really end turn?")
- You would get random events each turn, one of them being a soothsayer that would offer to predict your fortune. They would then give you the option to pay for extra advice, which would always be "Don't trust charlatans!"
- As your empire expanded, you'd be promoted in rank, some of the higher ones being Senator or Patrician.
- There would be battles, as nobles would sometimes attack your ports.
I enjoyed "Die Fugger" a lot. Unfortunately it never saw the success of "The Patrician".
The following funny little side story might have contributed to that:
The game's publisher Sonflower was sued by a descendant of the Fugger family because they claimed the game puts the name of his family in a bad light. They won and "Die Fugger II" could not be sold anymore. "Die Fugger III" appeared under the name "Die Gilde".
I wanted Imperium III and I got Patrician III by mistake. I didn't know how to play it at first as it wasn't your typical strategy game but after a while it became my favorite game.
I ended up controlling the whole Hanseatic League from Lübeck.
There is a great podcast, The History of the Germans, that have a season on the Hanseatic League. Its a great podcast if you enjoy history in general, the host isn't a professor or anything, but he does a great job with research and also makes interesting connections with how certain events were interpreted by German Nationalists, Fascists, Modern Day, etc. which is interesting.
I live in an Hanseatic League city (Stralsund) and the city still owns lots of land and is a rich one, hundreds of years later (though insignificant today).
Firstly, the article is appreciated - thanks. Now a minor gripe: several links I've clicked for further info point at paywalled matter, even for straightforward explanatory stuff like "moldboard plows" and, yes - I can go find info about such plows elsewhere but it breaks the stride when all that's needed is a sentence or two for clarification, not somebody's curated PhD thesis... ;->
junon|7 months ago
It's one of the most beautifully designed museums on a specific topic like this I've ever seen (it's also very accessible). The entire museum and all of its stations are translated into various languages by scanning a card you set up at the beginning, including customizing your information experience with certain topics you're particularly interested in (I chose naval architecture, if memory serves).
There's a cute coffee shop or two right there in the complex too, and the entirety of Lübeck is a beautiful, cozy area too. Many of the old Hanseatic buildings still stand as they were relatively untouched by the war.
Another hour in the same direction on the train takes you to the Travemünde beaches which are also gorgeous. Makes for a good day trip.
weinzierl|7 months ago
Other nerdy things to do there:
- Visit the container terminals of Europe's third busiest port
- Go to the Miniaturwunderland
- If you are into architecture or music: Elbphilharmonie
danans|7 months ago
Autocracy and the absence of accountability (either financial or criminal) for the very wealthy is an age old problem that we still deal with.
carlosjobim|7 months ago
dr_dshiv|7 months ago
nabla9|7 months ago
In European Council proposal will only be adopted if all member states are in agreeance. Formal voting does not take place, the member states deliberate until they reach general agreement.
NATO is the same. Any Article consultations like Article 4, or 5 end with consensus. One country can water it down.
Consensus based does not mean equal. Big participants usually throw their weight around a lot.
unknown|7 months ago
[deleted]
dgan|7 months ago
SilasX|7 months ago
Other things I remember:
- When you'd die, you'd pick an heir from your kids. They would be described as (sometimes you were supposed to understand as) being skilled at either fighting, exploring, or trading. If you didn't have an old enough one to pick, you'd have to pay a lot for some godparent to take over in the interim.
- You could raise capital by selling shares in your operation, but the more shares outstanding, the more interest (Zinsen) you'd have to pay. (You could also buy them back, but they'd be more expensive when you had a good year.)
- If you couldn't pay your obligations, you'd lose a turn to the Schuldturm (debtor's prison, lit. "debt tower").
- You could send explorers to find more lucrative ports, Novgorod being a good one.
- Depending on the weather, you might lose ships. Sometimes you wouldn't want to send any out, in which case it would warn you, "Keine Koggen auf der See! Zug wirklich beenden?" ("No cogs[2] on the sea! Really end turn?")
- You would get random events each turn, one of them being a soothsayer that would offer to predict your fortune. They would then give you the option to pay for extra advice, which would always be "Don't trust charlatans!"
- As your empire expanded, you'd be promoted in rank, some of the higher ones being Senator or Patrician.
- There would be battles, as nobles would sometimes attack your ports.
[1] https://www.mobygames.com/game/9273/hanse-die-expedition/
[2] A kind of ship used back then (also mentioned in the article as replacing the Knarr): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cog_(ship)?useskin=vector
weinzierl|7 months ago
The following funny little side story might have contributed to that:
The game's publisher Sonflower was sued by a descendant of the Fugger family because they claimed the game puts the name of his family in a bad light. They won and "Die Fugger II" could not be sold anymore. "Die Fugger III" appeared under the name "Die Gilde".
thatspartan|7 months ago
alecsm|7 months ago
I ended up controlling the whole Hanseatic League from Lübeck.
Good times.
spankibalt|7 months ago
mosferatu|7 months ago
[deleted]
ecshafer|7 months ago
https://historyofthegermans.com/hanseatic-league/
KingOfCoders|7 months ago
yu3zhou4|7 months ago
funnymunny|7 months ago
perihelions|7 months ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdemar_Atterdag_holding_Visb... ("Valdemar Atterdag holding Visby to ransom, 1361")
doug_durham|7 months ago
aswegs8|7 months ago
webslung|7 months ago
nkzd|7 months ago
Bridged7756|7 months ago
m0d0nne11|7 months ago
eatonphil|7 months ago
aswegs8|7 months ago
Hansappreciator|7 months ago
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