Hanseatic Colonies

Valdemar II

Banned
Is it possible for the Hanseatic League to get colonys in North America?
What would the effects be?

It's not impossible, through close to it. But the effect depend on which Hanse city which founded them. But I think there are only one city, with the size, geographic placement and expertice to do it; Hamburg. For how it would look, I think New Netherlands would be the model for such a colony. Of course if Hamburg succeed in founding such a colony, it likely have a greater chance to survive simply because of Hamburgs neutrality. The biggest problem are incitament and oppotunity.
 
Yes it's impossible. The Hanseatic League's power was basically broken by the era of colonialism, and there's no reason for them to be interested in colonies anyway. The Hanse knew what they were there for - controlling (or trying to control) north European trade. Colonies in the Americas would be a liability as they would have zero capacity to defend them - they would be lost within a decade, just like when Courland tried to colonise. They weren't stupid either - they would have realised this. There's no point placing a colony if you know full well that you can never hold it.

In addition the Hanse simply didn't have the population to plant colonies. When cities are only roughly 10-20,000 people large, planting 200-500 settlers as a first wave is a very big gamble to make. That's as much as 5% of your population gone on a gamble. And don't be fooled into believing that the Hanse were a viable national entity either: they were a trading alliance. They had zero military capacity aside from an armed merchant fleet so they couldn't defend each other and they didn't have the political ambition to cooperate on ventures like this.
 
The real problem is the political infrastructure. The Hansa had nothing like a central decisionmaking body, funds, or military. Everything depended on the will of individual city governments to cooperate. Any colonial venture would most likely take the shape of ca privileged Kontor, a trading entrepot where merchants could do business, rather than a territorial claim. What would a Hansa city do with territory? It's not like they lacked land at home. People, on the other hand, could always be got. Most Hansa cities were demographic sinks, encouraging immigration from relatively far afield and assimilating newcomers readily. Add another pull factor and you get more people coming. What they couldn't do is forcbler settlements. There weren't enough undesireables around.

Regrettably, Hamburg is not a terribly good candidate despite its geographic location. Due to its territorial commitments on the mainland and its efforts to arrogate the status of an imperial city, it was in theory a belligerent every time the emperor went to war. That kind of thing was not lost on the French. If I had to be creative, Cologne might just stand half a chance. Navigation down the Rhine, good relations with the Estates General, and a heavily industrialised and populous hinterland. Not to mention money.
 
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