The German Hanse shaped European trade in the Middle Ages. At its peak, it united 200 cities across the North and Baltic Sea regions, and its trade network extended from Scandinavia to Italy and from Portugal to the Russian Empire. Politically, the Hanse also matured into an influential power, even waging wars against principalities and entire kingdoms to assert its interests. Friedrich Wilhelm Barthold narrates how a loose association of Low German merchants and cities managed to become the most powerful trading alliance in Europe in a two-volume work on the history of the German Hanse. The second volume describes the Hanse at the height of its power in the 14th and 15th centuries and its gradual decline in significance leading to its eventual impotence following the Peace of Westphalia in the 17th century. Reprint of the original edition from 1.