A PARENTHESIS TO OTTOMAN-GERMAN ECONOMIC RELATIONS: THE HANSA LEAGUE

Abstract

Commercial relations are economic associations that emerge as a result of the combination of many different factors. The Hanseatic League, which the North German city-states laid the foundation in the city of Visby on Gotland Island, located on the Baltic Sea since the twelfth century, was also such a union that arose as a result of commercial relations. The Hanseatic League would become a large confederation structure that included more than two hundred cities located in northern and western Europe in time. Although the economic power of the League dominated northern Europe and the Baltic region, social, religious, and economic developments that shook Medieval Europe fundamentally, such as Reform Movements and the Thirty Years' Wars, would cause it to lose power and break up over time. In addition to Lübeck and Hamburg, which were effective in the foundation of the union during this period, the city of Bremen would continue its economic associations under the name of Hanseatic League until the North German Confederation was established in 1867. The relationship of the Hanseatic League with the Ottoman Empire was stood upon the 1838 Treaty of Balta Liman. The Hanseatic League, called by similar names such as Cemahir-i Selase-i Anseatik or Vilhanseatik Cemahir-i in Ottoman archival documents, acted like other European states that wanted to take advantage of the privileges of the agreement signed by the Ottoman Empire with the British. The Hanseatic League, contacted through the London ambassador of the time, James Colquhoun, would get what it wanted in a short time like nine months after the 1838 Treaty of Balta Liman. With the first known Ottoman-German privileged trade agreement signed on May 20, 1839, the Hanseatic League would also open a diplomatic embassy in the Ottoman Empire. In this study, the establishment, rise and collapse periods of the Hanseatic League, which signed a privileged trade agreement with the Ottoman Empire, are briefly included and the history of Ottoman-German trade relations is also mentioned. In this way, both the Ottoman-German commercial relations and the position of the Hanseatic League in these relations will be examined through official archival documents, primary and secondary sources.