Hanseatic League
Sarna News
The Hanseatic League is a mercantile nation located in the Deep Periphery, coreward of the Inner Sphere and anti-spinward of the most of the Deep Periphery. "League territory" extends approximately 300 light years in diameter.
Its origins begin in 2695 as the government of the Star League started to become increasingly authoritarian.
Camedon Wainwright, a retired admiral of Star League Navy, and Captain-Dame Jenessa De La Cruz, the owner of a small fleet of Jumpships and deepcore mining firms, tried to build up their own league of worlds based upon the Ideals of the great Star League itself but falling short as the Hanseatic worlds soon began to fight among themselves. In 2745 a loose confederation of the 12 to 15 known worlds in the league joined together to defend themselves from Belt-pirates and other Periphery kingdoms.
The modern (3067) Hanseatic League is a mercantile alliance of between 20 and 30 worlds. The League is run by a ruling council of merchants. Though peasants within the League do possess some freedoms, the mercantile class strictly controls the flow of goods, services, and travelers within its worlds. The League does trade and interact with outsiders, but this interaction is "officially" limited to three worlds, Bruges, Lübeck and Bergen. Despite this self-imposed isolation, foreigners may do business with merchants on other worlds, as the Hanseatic military can not cordon off the entire League. German is the official language, but English and Spanish are also spoken. There is no domestic currency, nor is there an HPG network, so the ruling class controls all large scale commerce and information.
The Hanseatic League maintains a standing army, including a large BattleMech force (by periphery standards) of several regiments, however technology within the League is approximately equal to that of the Inner Sphere in 3025.
The Hanseatic League claims to support free trade throughout the deep periphery, and its traders do venture great distances and trade with many small periphery realms and colonies. However, Hanseatic "free trade" clearly does not extend to member worlds. Hanseatic League merchants are direct competitors of other Periphery traders, especially those of the Diamond Sharks