AHC: Hansawank!

I've been interested in the Hansa for some time (largely due to EU3, but I try not to think about that due to being a recovering gaming addict). So let's see if we can make a Hansawank.

The goal is to ensure that an entity directly descended from the medieval Hanseatic League survives into the present day. I have three ideas for how this might work:

1. Hanseatic Republic: The Hansa become increasingly centralized until they are a true merchant republic in northern Germany. Said republic manages to survive to the present (presumably turning into a modern republic along the way).

2. Hanseatic Colony: The Hansa launch their own expedition to the New World, establishing a colony. Said colony becomes an independent nation in the New World (or maybe joins a larger political entity).

3. Hansa Inc.: The Hansa somehow stay in the merchant shipping business, ultimately becoming a modern corporation.
 
1. Does this republic survive a German unification? North Germany was mostly Protestant, hence the Hansa would be too, and any German unification would mean the Hanseatic Republic is incorporated into Germany. You'd need to break any potential of German unification. Like a prominent reformer in north Germany who makes a North German Bible translation to help separate the Low Germans from other Germans in the long run. The republic will then need to reform in the long run (as Venice or Genoa might have), based on the model of the Netherlands or possibly a New World republic (with a strong presidential figure, as the US and Latin America had) if the date is late enough.

2. The New World is pretty difficult to colonise. I don't know if they even could support a colony that would maintain a Hanseatic identity although Germany is a good base for a settler colony. The issues are, why would these people maintain a Germany identity, and how would these people protect themselves from either other Europeans or American Indian groups who they will undoubtedly piss off at some point. The other option would be to have them get involve in fur trading in Canada/Northern US and such where their legacy is maintained in isolated settlements to the present day. However, like the Hudson's Bay Company I'm thinking of, it would be even moreso in the influence they exerted on American Indian groups.

3. Like the modern Hudson's Bay Company? That's the most realistic potential assuming scenario 2, but from my little knowledge on this subject, I could certainly imagine the Hansa ending up a corporation in Europe.
 
It's rather hard to see this without a significant change to the way European history moves. The problem is that the Hansa existed pretty much in response to a vacuum. It functioned in lieu of, and in the absence of, state power. You could think of it as a Libertarian navy - brought about by shared private interests, impermanent and unwilling to accept any kind of regularisation for fear of the responsibility it brings. It's not for nothing that when the king of England demanded to know what kind of thing the Hansa was, its emissaries replied they had no idea, really.

Most likely the best way to continue giving the Hansa power is to continue the vacuum. Create a situation in which the national territorial state does not emerge in northern Europe. IN any multi-ethnic feudal Empire, the Hanseatic cities will be a powerful voice and potentially a kingmaker. IN a centralised state, they're just moneybags that can be squeezed.

One idea I thought about would be integrating the Hansa into Burgundy. Before its spectacular collapse, Burgundy oriented its policy mainly south and west, towards France, where the dukes' dynastic interests lay. But that's not a given. If France becomes too hard too early, the rich holdings in the Netherlands make an attractive second centre of power. From there, territories in Northwestern Germany are relatively easy and logical targets. It bears remembering that a lot of the cities of Holland, the lower Rhine and Westfalia were Hansa cities, so Burgundy could become a major factor in Hansa politics long before reaching the Baltic. Assume a confrontation with Denmark (territorially not implausible) and the dukes could certainly use Hansa help.

In the medium term, this might align the interests of the Dutch and North German ports. The ATL-Hansa's centre of gravity would be at the mouth of the Rhine rather than that that of the Elbe, but it would still be a power worth reckoning with. From the dudesche hense to the duitse hansa is not that far, after all.
 
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