At no time during the Middle Ages was there a completely unified state that incorporated all or even a majority of all German-speaking peoples. The map was dotted with minor kingdoms, free cities and, in the High and Late Middle Ages, the ports controlled by the Hanseatic League, a powerful trading alliance. Most of these were under the loosely defined suzerainty of the Holy Roman Empire. Here the definition of "Germany" is the lands where High and Low German was spoken, which extended roughly from Alsace in the west to Silesia in the east and from the Tyrol in the south to the Baltic Sea coast in the north.