First formed to facilitate trade along the Kiel "salt road," FTP, name this medieval group of merchant associations from Lubeck, Hamburg, and other north German cities.
Its failure to unify against the hostility of Richard II and the Merchant Adventurers was the first sign of its decline.  Its greatest enemy used Kampen and the towns of the Zuider Zee as a lure to split it in two and co-opt the Livonian cities, but they rebelled and joined with their Wendish rivals in the Confederation of Cologne to recover the fortress of Halsingborg and rights to trade through the Oresund.  The Peace of Stralsund confirmed its victory over Waldemar Attedag, despite his sack of Visby in 1361.  First formed to facilitate trade along the Kiel "salt road," FTP, name this medieval group of merchant associations from Lubeck, Hamburg, and other north German cities.
Its failure to unify against the hostility of Richard II and the Merchant Adventurers was the first sign of its decline.  
Hanseatic League or the Hansa (or: die Hansetage)