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The German Hansa had indeed significant strongholds in Scandinavia (Visby on Gotland, Bergen in Norway), but it was founded as a coalition against Scandinavia's main power, Denmark, and to allow German merchants to escape the infamous Öresund-Zoll, i.e. the punitive taxes the Danes were asking from any ship transiting between the Baltic and the North Sea. That way Hamburg and Lübeck were able to control nearly all traffic between Russia, Western and Central Europe.
Thus it can be stated that Germany and Scandinavia arose as distinct culture domeins in opposition to each other.
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