ducts of the north for those of the east and south
could be effected there to the greatest advantage of both.

While it must be admitted that the Hanseatic League developed the
resources of Northern Europe, and that, even at the time of its greatest
power, there was always competition among its own members, the fact
remains that it abused its power by the suppression of all outside
competition, and that it usurped rights which belong only to the state,
thus often producing abuses as great as those which it was organized to
remedy. Its final downfall was caused by the development of national
power in the northern kingdoms and the growth of commerce and
navigation in Great Britain. A stubborn assertion of antiquated
privileges on the part of the Hansa involved it in a feud with the
illustrious and lion-hearted Queen Elizabeth of England. In 1589 the
Queen caused sixty of their vessels to be captured on the Tagus, and
later even took possession of their hall and wharves in London. After
this the League's decline was very rapid, though its organization was
kept up till 1669, when its delegates held their last session.

Contemporary with the decline of the Hanseatic commerce in the north was
that of the Italian cities, especially Venice, in the south. They had
prospered by their commerce with the Levant until Vasco de Gama
discovered the sea route to East India in 1497. His countrymen, the
Portuguese, soon utilized this discovery. They took possession of the
coast of India and of the islands to the south of it. They also
succeeded in excluding the Arabs from the commerce with that country, of
which up to that time they had had exclusive control. For this purpose
they built fortresses and factories on the west coast of Hindostan, took
possession of the island of Socotra in the Arabian, and of Ormus in the
Persian Gulf, and forced the Indian princes to grant them the exclusive
privilege of trading with their subjects. They also captured the city of
Malacca, where the trade between China, Japan, the Philippine Islands,
the Moluccas and India had concentrated itself. In this way they got in
a comparatively short time control of the commerce of India, Arabia, and
even Egypt. By forcing the Venetians and their commercial allies out of
those markets, they secured for themselves a monopoly of the commerce
between Europe and the east. The political ascendancy of the Turks in
the islands situated in, and in the countries bordering on,