This project studies the development of urban networks in the so-called Cologne region around the rivers Rhine, Meuse, Waal and IJssel, and their relation to Hanse between ca. 1450 and 1650. The Hanse, a cross-border cooperation of cities and businessmen, dominated European trade and politics for nearly four centuries (14th-17th century). The project focuses on its function for cities in the Cologne area at both sides of the actual Dutch-German border as well as on the function of individual towns and groups of cities within the contemporary Hanseatic network.
This is realized by studying the urban communication network, which pre-eminently mirrors mutual relations. Travels of messengers and representatives in city accounts, meeting reports, and letters reveal cities’ communication radiuses, the intensity and nature of contacts, and strategies on information’s distribution routes. Visualizing these aspects on maps in relation to developments such as shifting borders and accessibility of roads and waterways, improves our understanding of the development and operationalisation of such urban networks.
The project responds to an actual request for more information on the Hanseatic past of cities in what is nowadays the Low Countries. The project is funded by: Provinces of Gelderland, Limburg, and Overijssel; the municipalities of Arnhem, Apeldoorn, Deventer, Elburg, Harderwijk, Nijmegen, Roermond, Venlo and Zutphen; Erfgoedplatform Apeldoorn; the Regional Archives Noordwest Veluwe; A.H. Martens van Sevenhoven Foundation; and RICH, Radboud Institute for Culture & History of Radboud University.