Trading Cities


 * In the high medieval period cities become important in European life again because of the revival of trade (particularly international trade).
 * Creates the rise of independent, powerful cities engaged in international trade in these places primarily: in Italy, in the 3 major cities of Venice, Genoa, and Pisa (which become very wealthy and powerful off of the trade they engage in/control, with cities in the Eastern Mediterranean). Also the cities that are very important in Flanders, which is in the North (modern Belgium), that engage in sea trade in Northern Europe and in cities in the Baltic Region (Northern Germany and Istonia and the Baltic Sea). These cities ally together in the Hanseatic League (association of Northern European cities that are powerful and important because of the international trade that they engage in).