Introduction
Hansai, a commercial-military alliance that arose in the conditions of the removal of military power and the weakness of the feudal lords, and enjoyed freedom, considered themselves committed to the Byzantine Empire and thus enjoyed legitimacy. They began to trade between cities, creating a network system centered on Lübeck and Hamburg. Lübeck and Hamburg were a self-organized form of cooperation that acted as a hub or node in this urban network and communicated through meters in other cities, but failed as England and the Netherlands took power. The cities of this union exerted influence on the cities around the Baltic Sea by establishing mutual relations with each other and created a united region in terms of military and trade, which were connected to other regions and cities. In fact, they laid the foundation for the region we know today as the European Union. On a larger scale, Europe was connected with other regions including Cairo and North Africa, Baghdad-Tabriz-Hormuz and Middle East, Samarkand-Bukhara and Central Asia, Gujarat-Malacca and South Asia, Zaytoun-Shanghai and East Asia. Since the Hanseatic League was born from the formation of a set of connections between the cities of Northern Europe, therefore, this article, using a descriptive analytic method, aims to describe the Hanseatic League and modern regionalism and intercity communication in the Middle Ages and the contemporary period.
Methodology
The research is descriptive-analytic and data gathering procedure is based on library findings. The results of the research will be used to propose a suitable model for contemporary cities.
Results and discussion
Today, with the development of communication networks and the ease of transportation and production flexibility, a kind of division of labor between cities has been created, in which these cities have a managerial role, and at the global and regional level, the sphere of influence. These cities have created economic networks through the main and subsidiary branches of multinational companies in different cities and they act at the level of hubs and nodes. Since the power of cities is increasing in the present era and the level of relations between them has been expanded, the Hanseatic Union will be a suitable model for their union at the regional level, which is called new regionalism. This model can be followed by statesmen and city managers in different regions of the world, such as the Union of European Cities, the Union of Central Asian Cities, the Union of Caucasus Cities, the Union of Persian Gulf Cities, and form unions for greater regional convergence. Today, some of these regional unions have emerged, but unions such as the Caucasus Cities Union or the Persian Gulf require the will of the city officials and managers of these countries.
