| Recent German research provided us with valuable new insights on the influence of the State on the decline of the Hansa in the 15th and 16th centuries, showing that traditional views and approaches are no longer tenable. New ideas on the changes within the Northwestern European commercial system were developed, but virtually no attention was given to the impact of the rise of the Habsburg State on the decline of the Hansa. The project therfore will establish to what extent the economic division of the Northern Netherlands was resolved by the integration of these territories in a more cohesive state complex on the turning point from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period. From this angle, the project will provide, by focussing on diplomatic contacts and political decision of stateformation in the Netherlands provoked a change in the relations with the Hansa and in what way this contributed to its decline. At the same time - albeit to a lesser degree- the extent to which the hansa itself witnessed a degradation of internal solidarity under the pression of political changes in the German principalities will be taken into account. Though relying on traditional sources, this project is characterized by a shift from the old institutional and jurisdictional approach to modern researchmethods, emphazing recently recognized keyfactors as continuity and change, adaption abilities and diversity of interests. It also distanciates from the traditional ¿hollando-centric¿approach and emphasizes the role of all Dutch trading and commercial centers in their relations with the Hansa League in the crucial period between ca. 1447 and 1550. Thus it essentially deals with the interaction of processes of economic and political change. |
