History of North Rhine-Westphalia
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North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration's "Operation Marriage" on 23 August 1946 by merging the Rhine Province with the Province of Westphalia. On 21 January 1947, the former Free State of Lippe was merged with North Rhine-Westphalia.[1]
Julius Caesar
At around 55BC, the time of Julius Caesar, the territories west of the Rhine in this region were occupied by the Eburones, one of the tribes he identified as "Germani cisrhenani", who lived within the part of Gaul associated with the Belgae. Caesar reports that he tried to annihilate the Eburones and their name. Once part of the Roman empire, their country was occupied by a Germanic tribe with a different name, the Tungri. However, Tacitus reported that "Tungri" was a new name for the original "Germani", stating that in fact the first tribal group to be called by that name were the ones from west of the Rhine.[2] (Although the term "Germani" was used, and Caesar and other Roman historians clearly reported that there was kinship with tribes East of the Rhine, there is evidence that these early tribes on both sides of the Rhine used Celtic languages.)
Of the related tribes on the eastern bank of the Rhine, Caesar reported the
Roman Empire and the Franks
Julius Caesar conquered the tribes on the left (western) bank of the Rhine, and
East of the Rhine, Roman historians such as Tacitus report that to the north of the Sugambri were also the
Around 1 A.D. there were numerous incursions through Westphalia and perhaps even some permanent
By late Roman times it appears that whatever remained of these tribal groupings began to be referred to as the
By the 8th century the Frankish dominion was firmly established in most of western Germany and northern Gaul.
Holy Roman empire
Charlemagne is thought to have spent considerable time in Paderborn and nearby parts. His Saxon Wars also partly took place in what is thought of as Westphalia today. Popular legends link his adversary Widukind to places near Detmold, Bielefeld, Lemgo, Osnabrück and other places in Westphalia. Widukind was buried in Enger, which is also a subject of a legend.
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Along with
On the division of the Carolingian Empire at the Treaty of Verdun the part of the province to the east of the river fell to East Francia, while that to the west remained with the kingdom of Lotharingia.[3] By the time of Otto I. (d. 973) both banks of the Rhine had become part of the
As the central power of the
In spite of its dismembered condition, and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbours in various periods of warfare, the Rhenish territory prospered greatly and stood in the foremost rank of German culture and progress. Aachen was the place of coronation of the German emperors, and the ecclesiastical principalities of the Rhine bulked largely in German history.[3]
Middle Ages
Parts of Westphalia came under
Early modern era
As a result of the
After the defeat of the
After the Congress of Vienna, the Kingdom of Prussia received a large amount of territory in the Westphalian region and created the province of Westphalia in 1815. The northernmost portions of the former kingdom, including the town of Osnabrück, had become part of the states of Hanover and Oldenburg.
Prussian influence
Prussia first set foot on the Rhine in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves and about a century later Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. At the peace of Basel in 1795 the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was resigned to France, and in 1806 the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine. The congress of Vienna assigned the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia, which had the tact to leave them in undisturbed possession of the liberal institutions they had become accustomed to under the republican rule of the French.[3]
During the late 19th century the region developed into the center of the German steel industry, whose products were shipped and used in construction worldwide. The Stahlhof in central Düsseldorf, constructed in 1906–08, became the epicenter of the administration of these vast enterprises.
In 1920, the
Creation of the state
North Rhine-Westphalia was established by the British military administration's "Operation Marriage" on 23 August 1946.[1]
Originally, it consisted of
See also
- History of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia
- Timelines of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia
- Timeline of Aachen
- Timeline of Bonn
- Timeline of Cologne
- Timeline of Dortmund
- Timeline of Duisburg
- Timeline of Düsseldorf
- Timeline of Essen
- Timeline of Münster
Notes
- ^ a b c "History of North Rhine-Westphalia". Government of North Rhine-Westphalia. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
- ^ Tacitus, Germania, II 2. ceterum Germaniae vocabulum recens et nuper additum, quoniamqui primi Rhenum transgressi Gallos expulerint ac nunc Tungri, tunc Germani vocati sint: ita nationis nomen, nongentis, evaluisse paulatim, ut omnes primum a victore obmetum, mox et a se ipsis invento nomine Germani vocarentur.
- ^ a b c d Chisholm 1911, p. 243
References
- Attribution
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Rhine Province". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 242–243.
