Editing Hanseatic League (section)

====Economic power and defense====
The Hanseatic League, at first the merchant hansas and eventually its cities, relied on power to secure protection and gain and preserve privileges. Bandits and pirates were persistent problems; during wars, these could be joined by [[privateers]]. Traders could be arrested abroad and their goods could be confiscated.<ref name="Hibbert"/> The league sought to codify protection; internal treaties established mutual defense and external treaties codified privileges.<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=53}}

Many locals, merchant and noble alike, envied the League's power and tried to diminish it. For example, in London, local merchants exerted continuing pressure for the revocation of privileges.<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|pages=96–98}} Most foreign cities confined Hanseatic traders to specific trading areas and their trading posts.<ref name="Burkhardt"/>{{rp|pages=128, 143}} The refusal of the Hansa to offer reciprocal arrangements to their counterparts exacerbated the tension.<ref name="North"/>{{rp|pages=105–111}}

League merchants used their economic power to pressure cities and rulers. They called embargoes, redirected trade away from towns, and boycotted entire countries. Blockades were erected against Novgorod in 1268 and 1277/1278.<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=58}} Bruges was pressured by temporarily moving the Hanseatic emporium to Aardenburg from 1280 to 1282,<ref name="Hammel-Kiesow2"/>{{rp|page=58}}<ref name="Henn2010">{{cite book
 |last= Henn
 |first= Volker
 |title= Het ontstaan van de Hanze [''The coming into being of the Hanseatic League''] 
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=T5e68QReeykC | page=19}}
 |page= 19
}} in {{harvnb|Brand|Egge|2010}}</ref>{{rp|pages=19–21}} from 1307 or 1308 to 1310 <ref name="Henn2010"/>{{rp|pages=20–21}} and in 1350,<ref name="Brand2010"/>{{rp|page=29}} to [[Dordrecht|Dordt]] in 1358 and 1388, and to [[Antwerp]] in 1436.<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|page=68, 80, 92}} Boycotts against Norway in 1284<ref name="Brand2010"/>{{rp|page=28}} and Flanders in 1358 nearly caused famines.<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|page=68}} They sometimes resorted to military action. Several Hanseatic cities maintained their warships and in times of need, repurposed merchant ships. Military action against political powers often involved an ''ad hoc'' coalition of stakeholders, called an alliance (''tohopesate'').<ref name="Brand2010"/>{{rp|pages=32, 39–40}}<ref name="Sarnowsky"/>{{rp|pages=93–95}}

[[File:Kõpu tuletorn Hiiumaal.jpg|thumb|Kõpu Lighthouse in Hiiumaa]]

As an essential part of protecting their investments, League members trained [[pilot (harbour)|pilots]] and erected lighthouses,<ref>{{Cite book
 |last= McKenna
 |first= Amy
 |title= Denmark, Finland, and Sweden
 |publisher= Britannica Educational Publishing
 |date= 2013
 |isbn= 9781615309955
 |page= 186
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=af-cAAAAQBAJ | page=186}}
}}</ref> including [[Kõpu Lighthouse]].<ref>{{Cite book
 |last= Ebelt
 |first= Thomas
 |title= Lighthouses of Europe
 |publisher= Bloomsbury Publishing
 |date= 2018
 |isbn= 9781472958754
 |page= 35
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=sZNyDwAAQBAJ | page=35}}
}}</ref><ref name = "Hibbert"/> Lübeck erected in 1202 what may be northern Europe's first proper lighthouse in [[Falsterbo]]. By 1600 at least 15 lighthouses had been erected along the German and Scandinavian coasts, making it the best-lighted coast in the world, largely thanks to the Hansa.<ref>{{Cite book
 |last= Stevenson
 |first= D. Alan
 |title= The World's Lighthouses: From Ancient Times to 1820
 |publisher= Courier Corporation
 |date= 2013
 |isbn= 9780486157085
 |url= {{google books | plainurl=yes | id=9fO7AQAAQBAJ | page=24}}
}}</ref>