before 814 The Wends
11th/13th century






The Wends during the Viking Age (814-1043)



Under the Saxon kings, renewed attempts were made to conquer the Slavic lands to the east of the Elbe. The Sorbic March was MARCH MERSEBURG, MARCH ZEITZ and MARCH LUSATIA; temporarily the Wends were subjugated, the land partitioned in further marches, the work of mission begun. But the Slavs repeatedly rose in revolt, burnt the churches and killed the priests.
In 968, the ARCHDIOCESIS OF MAGDEBURG was established, with the task to promote the conversion of the Wends (and other Slavic peoples further east). The conversion of the Bohemians, Danes and Poles (late 10th century) turned the areas settled by the Wends into an island of paganism; now pressure was also exerted by the Danes and Poles. The ARCHDIOCESIS OF BREMEN was interested in converting the Obodrites living on the shores of the Baltic Sea.

During the Viking Age, the Wends answered on Viking raids with raids of their own. The Swedish Viking settlement at BIRKA was destroyed in such a raid.
In the early 11th century, Wagrian Slavs had raided the County of Holstein; the Holsteiners retaliated, depopulating Wagria. Settlers were called in from as far as Flanders, and the land now referred to as Ostholstein was settled. The city of LUEBECK was founded (1043), to become the Baltic's dominating trade center.






EXTERNAL
LINKS 		The Conversion and destruction of the Wends, by E. Skip Knox
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 12th 2004

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