Economic interdependence and kinship ties between merchant families, who held important positions in towns, led to deeper political integration and the removal of obstacles to trade. ![]() These arrangements gradually coalesced into the Hanseatic League, whose traders enjoyed toll privileges and protection in affiliated communities and their trade routes. The League originated from various loose associations of German traders and towns formed to advance mutual commercial interests, such as protection against robbers. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 12th century, the League expanded between the 13th and 15th centuries and ultimately encompassed nearly 200 settlements across seven modern-day countries, ranging from Estonia in the north and east, to the Netherlands in the west, and Kraków, Poland, in the south. The Hanseatic League was a medieval commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Central and Northern Europe.
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