Hanseatic League (Civ3)/Civilopedia

The Hanseatic League was an agreement among the independent trading cities of the Baltic seaboard (and some inland too). The center of 
the League was Luebeck, a north German town sitting on a crossroads between Swedish trading lanes and the more southern economic regions. 
The purpose of the confederation was to protect shipping and caravans from bandits, and to build economic infrastructure such as lighthouses 
and waystations. It also sponsored the training of merchant ship captains. The league could be quite ruthless when defending its interests; it 
engaged in blockades, embargoes, bribery, patronage, and all manner of political tactics to ensure favorable treatment for its members. It even 
financed and organized its own fleet, when the king of Denmark tried to shut down its access to the waters around his country (the League fleet won 
a decisive naval victory). But it could not cope with more powerful kingdoms that began to form around the 15th century C.E., and slowly its members were 
wooed or intimidated into other spheres of influence.