Editing Brandenburg (section)

===Early Middle Ages===
{{Main|Northern March}}
Brandenburg is situated in territory known in antiquity as [[Magna Germania]], which reached to the Vistula river. By the 7th century, [[Slavic people]] are believed to have settled in the Brandenburg area. The Slavs expanded from the east, possibly driven from their homelands in present-day Ukraine and perhaps Belarus by the invasions of the [[Huns]] and [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]]. They relied heavily on river transport. The two principal Slavic groups in the present-day area of Brandenburg were the [[Hevelli]] in the west and the [[Sprevane]] in the east.

Beginning in the early 10th century, [[Henry the Fowler]] and his successors conquered territory up to the [[Oder River]]. Slavic settlements such as Brenna<ref>{{Cite book|last=Barford|first=Paul M.|title=The Early Slavs: Culture and Society in Early Medieval Eastern Europe|publisher=Cornell University Press|location=Ithaca|year=2001|page=421|isbn=0-8014-3977-9}}</ref> ([[Brandenburg an der Havel]]), Budusin<ref>{{Cite book|last=Institut für Sorbische Volksforschung in Bautzen|title=Lětopis Instituta za serbski ludospyt|publisher=Domowina|location=Bautzen|year=1962}}</ref> ([[Bautzen]]), and Chośebuz<ref>{{Cite book|last=Room|first=Adrian|title=Placenames of the World|publisher=McFarland & Company|location=Jefferson|year=2006|page=433|isbn=0-7864-2248-3}}</ref> ([[Cottbus]]) came under [[Holy Roman Empire|imperial]] control through the installation of margraves. Their main function was to defend and protect the eastern [[marches]]. In 948 Emperor [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]] established margraves to exert imperial control over the pagan Slavs west of the Oder River. Otto founded the Bishoprics of [[Diocese of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] and [[Bishopric of Havelberg|Havelberg]]. The [[Northern March]] was founded as a northeastern border territory of the [[Holy Roman Empire]]. However, a great uprising of [[Wends]] drove imperial forces from the territory of present-day Brandenburg in 983. The region returned to the control of Slavic leaders. The eastern parts of current Brandenburg, i.e. the [[Lubusz Land]] and [[Lower Lusatia]], became part of Poland in the 10th-11th centuries.