This Hanseatic Museum in Bergen tells the story of the city within the Hanseatic League and the association's importance to the city. The Hanseatic League was an extensive trading network of merchants that spread from Germany as far as the Baltics to the east, Belgium to the south, the British Isles to the west, and far north of Norway. Active in Bergen for 400 years between the 14th and 18th centuries, it brought great wealth and a large number of foreign residents to the city and had a great influence on the city.