HANOVER 



2686 



HANSEATIC LEAGUE 



The population, consisting chiefly of Anna- 

 mites, Chinese, Japanese and Indians, with 

 about 3,000 Europeans, is estimated at 110,000. 



HANOVER, han'ohver, a town in Grey 

 County, Ontario, in the western part of the 

 Ontario peninsula. Jt is on the Saugeen River 

 and the Grand Trunk and Canadian Pacific 

 railways, forty-five miles by rail south of Owen 

 Sound. Hanover is an important furniture 

 manufacturing center, having no fewer than 

 eight furniture factories. There are also flour 

 and woolen mills, a shirt factory and brick 

 and cement works. The town receives hydro- 

 electric power from Eugenia Falls. Popula- 

 tion in 1911, 2,342; in 1916, estimated, 3,000. 



HANOVER, in German, hahno'ver, since 

 1866 a province of Prussia, but formerly an 

 independent kingdom, which gave to England 

 a line of Hanoverian rulers. The province is 

 bounded on the north by the North Sea, 



FORMER 

 AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 



LOCATION MAP 

 The province is shown in black. 



Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 

 west by Holland, east by Saxony and Bruns- 

 wick and south by Hesse-Nassau and West- 

 phalia. It is drained by the rivers Elbe, Weser 

 and Ems, with their numerous tributaries. 

 The southern part is mountainous, contain- 

 ing the Harz Mountains, which are extremely 

 rich in minerals and timber. Agriculture is 

 the most important industry, but is in a 

 backward state, only forty per cent of the 

 available land being cultivated. The soil is 

 not very fertile, except in some low-lying dis- 

 tricts, but hops, flax, tobacco and sugar beets 

 are grown. The manufactures are extensive, 

 especially those of iron and copper, cotton and 

 woolen goods and leather. Shipbuilding is an 

 important industry, carried on chiefly at Wil- 

 helmshaven, the principal base for submarine 

 vessels during the War of the Nations. Al- 



though there are excellent railroad communi- 

 cations, the River Weser is the, main com- 

 mercial highway of the province. 



For administrative purposes the province is 

 divided into six departments, Hanover, Hildes- 

 heim, Luneburg, Stade, Osnabriick and Aurich. 

 Until 1692, when it was made an electorate, 

 Hanover was practically a part of the Duchy 

 of Brunswick. In 1714 the Elector George 

 Louis became King George I of England, and, 

 until 1837, Hanover was ruled by English sov- 

 ereigns. Hanoverian laws did not permit a 

 woman to ascend the throne, so when Victoria 

 became queen of England, in 1837, Ernest Au- 

 gustus, duke of Cumberland, fifth son of 

 George III of England, became ruler of Han- 

 over. The incorporation of Hanover as a 

 part of the Prussian empire by the terms of 

 the Peace of Prague in 1866 was bitterly op- 

 posed by the king of Hanover. Enmity be- 

 tween the Hohenzollerns of Prussia and the 

 Guelphs of Hanover existed until the recon- 

 ciliation effected by the marriage of the daugh- 

 ter of Kaiser William II to Ernest Augustus, 

 son of the last king of Hanover. 



Hanover, a flourishing manufacturing town, 

 is capital of the province of Hanover. It has 

 iron foundries, machine works and manufac- 

 tures of chemicals, tobacco and cigars. The 

 River Leine flows through the city, dividing 

 it into an old and a new portion. As an educa- 

 tional center Hanover ranks high among Ger- 

 man cities and is noted for the purity of the 

 German spoken there. Its commercial growth 

 is modern, but has been so rapid that within 

 a few years it has become the seventh city of 

 Prussia and twelfth in importance in the Ger- 

 man empire. Hanover was the first German 

 city to be lighted with gas. The city was 

 founded in 1100, and was an important mem- 

 ber of the Hanseatic League in 1481. Popu- 

 lation in 1910, 302,375. "F.ST.A. 



HANSEATIC, hanseat'ik, LEAGUE, or 

 HANS A, a union of a number of cities of 

 Northern Germany, formed in about the thir- 

 teenth century for their mutual safety and the 

 protection of their commerce. The sea and 

 land were so overrun with pirates and robbers 

 that Hamburg and Liibeck made a compact to 

 keep open the road across Holstein connect- 

 ing the North Sea with the Baltic, Brunswick 

 soon joined these cities, and out of this union 

 grew the Hansa, which at its most flourishing 

 period included eighty-five towns and cities. 



Liibeck was recognized as the leader, and 

 here deputies of the other Hanseatic towns 



