High Middle Ages

==Trade and commerce==
[[File:Lübeck - panoramio.jpg|200px|thumb|right|[[Lübeck]], de facto capital of the [[Hanseatic League]]]]
In Northern Europe, the [[Hanseatic League]], a federation of free cities to advance trade by sea, was founded in the 12th century, with the foundation of the city of [[Lübeck]], which would later dominate the League, in 1158–1159. Many northern cities of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] became Hanseatic cities, including [[Amsterdam]], [[Cologne]], [[Bremen]], [[Hanover]] and Berlin. Hanseatic cities outside the Holy Roman Empire were, for instance, [[Bruges]] and the Polish city of [[Gdańsk]] (Danzig), as well as Königsberg, capital of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights.  In [[Bergen]], Norway and [[Veliky Novgorod]], Russia the league had factories and middlemen. In this period the Germans started colonising Europe beyond the Empire, into [[Prussia]] and [[Silesia]].

In the late 13th century, a [[Venice|Venetian]] explorer named [[Marco Polo]] became one of the first Europeans to travel the [[Silk Road]] to China. Westerners became more aware of the Far East when Polo documented his travels in ''[[The Travels of Marco Polo|Il Milione]]''. He was followed by numerous Christian missionaries to the East, such as [[William of Rubruck]], [[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]], [[André de Longjumeau]], [[Odoric of Pordenone]], [[Giovanni de' Marignolli]], [[John of Montecorvino|Giovanni di Monte Corvino]], and other travellers such as [[Niccolò de' Conti]].