Rhineland
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The Rhineland (
Term
Historically, the term "Rhinelands"
A "Rhineland" conceptualization can be traced to the period of the
In the early 1800s,
Following the
Geography
To the west the area stretches to the borders with Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands; on the eastern side it encompasses the towns and cities along the river and the Bergisches Land area up to the Westphalian (Siegerland) and Hessian regions. Stretching down to the North Palatine Uplands in the south, this area, except for the Saarland, more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term.
The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country (
The area encompasses the western part of the
.History
Pre-Roman
At the earliest historical period, the territories between the
Roman and Frankish conquests
Julius Caesar conquered the Celtic tribes on the West bank, and Augustus established numerous fortified posts on the Rhine, but the Romans never succeeded in gaining a firm footing on the East bank. As the power of the Roman empire declined the Franks pushed forward along both banks of the Rhine, and by the end of the 5th century had conquered all the lands that had formerly been under Roman influence. By the 8th century, the Frankish dominion was firmly established in western Germania and northern Gaul.
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.[5]
Holy Roman Empire
By the time of Emperor
As the central power of the
- the ecclesiastical electorates of Cologne (without Westphalian possessions) and Trier
- the duchies of Berg, forming the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Bergfrom 1521
- the County of Sponheim and numerous further Imperial Counties
- the .
In spite of its dismembered condition and the sufferings it underwent at the hands of its French neighbors 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 played a large role in German history.[5]
French Revolution
At the Peace of Basel in 1795, the whole of the left bank of the Rhine was taken by France. The population was about 1.6 million in numerous small states. In 1806, the Rhenish princes all joined the Confederation of the Rhine, a puppet of Napoleon. France took direct control of the Rhineland until 1814 and radically and permanently liberalized the government, society and economy. The Coalition of France's enemies made repeated efforts to retake the region, but France repelled all the attempts.[6]
The French swept away centuries worth of outmoded restrictions and introduced unprecedented levels of efficiency.[7] The chaos and barriers in a land divided and subdivided among many different petty principalities gave way to a rational, simplified, centralized system controlled by Paris and run by Napoleon's relatives. The most important impact came from the abolition of all feudal privileges and historic taxes, the introduction of legal reforms of the Napoleonic Code, and the reorganization of the judicial and local administrative systems. The economic integration of the Rhineland with France increased prosperity, especially in industrial production, while business accelerated with the new efficiency and lowered trade barriers. The Jews were liberated from the ghetto. There was limited resistance; most Germans welcomed the new regime, especially the urban elites, but one sour point was the hostility of the French officials toward the Roman Catholic Church, the choice of most of the residents.[8] The reforms were permanent. Decades later workers and peasants in the Rhineland often appealed to Jacobinism to oppose unpopular government programs, while the intelligentsia demanded the maintenance of the Napoleonic Code (which stayed in effect for a century).[9][10]
Prussian influence
A Prussian influence began on a small scale in 1609 by the occupation of the Duchy of Cleves. A century later, Upper Guelders and Moers also became Prussian. The Congress of Vienna expelled the French and assigned the whole of the lower Rhenish districts to Prussia, who left them in undisturbed possession of the liberal institutions to which they had become accustomed under the French.[5] The Rhine Province remained part of Prussia after Germany was unified in 1871.[11]
1918–1945
The occupation of the Rhineland took place following the
, German troops were banned from all territory west of the Rhine and within 50 kilometers east of the Rhine.In 1920, under massive French pressure, the
In January 1923, in response to Germany's failure to meet its reparations obligations, French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr district, strictly controlling all important industrial areas. The Germans responded with passive resistance, which led to hyperinflation,[12] and the French gained very little of the reparations they wanted. French troops left the Ruhr in August 1925.
The occupation of the remainder of the Rhineland ended on 30 June 1930.[13]
On 7 March 1936, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, German troops marched into the Rhineland and other regions along the Rhine. German territory west of the Rhine had been off-limits to the German military.
In 1945, the Rhineland was the scene of major fighting as the Allied forces overwhelmed the German defenders.[14]
Post-1946
In 1946, the Rhineland was divided into the newly founded states of
See also
- Cologne/Bonn Region
- Lower Rhine region
- Rhineland-Palatinate
- North Rhine-Westphalia
- 6070 Rheinland
References
- ASIN B000IOFSEQ.
- ^ Robyn Burnett; Ken Luebbering (2005). Immigrant Women in the Settlement of Missouri. University of Missouri Press. p. 111.
- ^ Walter D. Kamphoefner (2014). The Westfalians: From Germany to Missouri. Princeton University Press. p. 103.
- ISBN 0-8038-6324-1.
- ^ a b c d Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). 1911. pp. 242–243. .
- ISBN 978-0198225645.
- ^ source?
- ^ Hajo Holborn, A History of Modern Germany, 1648-1840 (1964) pp 386-87
- ^ Michael Rowe, "Between Empire and Home Town: Napoleonic Rule on the Rhine, 1799-1814", Historical Journal (1999) 42#2 pp. 643-674 in JSTOR
- ^ Michael Rowe, From Reich to state: the Rhineland in the revolutionary age, 1780-1830 (2003)
- ^ Muirhead, James Fullarton (1886). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XX (9th ed.).
- ^ "Hyperinflation and the invasion of the Ruhr". The Holocaust Explained. Retrieved 27 November 2023.
- ^ "Erster Weltkrieg und Besatzung 1918–1930 in Rheinland-Pfalz: 9. Der Abzug der Besatzungstruppen am 30. Juni 1930" [The First World War and the Occupation 1918–1930 in Rhineland-Palatinate: 9. The withdrawal of the occupying troops on 30 June 1930]. regionalgeschichte.net (in German). Retrieved 21 November 2023.
- ^ Ken Ford, The Rhineland 1945: The Last Killing Ground in the West (Osprey, 2000)
Further reading
- Brophy, James M. (9 August 2007). Popular Culture and the Public Sphere in the Rhineland, 1800-1850. ISBN 9780521847698.
- Collar, Peter (28 February 2013). The Propaganda War in the Rhineland: Weimar Germany, Race and Occupation After World War I. ISBN 9781780763460.
- Diefendorf, Jeffry M. (14 July 2014). Businessmen and Politics in the Rhineland, 1789-1834. ISBN 9781400853786.
- Emmerson, James Thomas (1977). The Rhineland Crisis. 7 March 1936. A Study in Multilateral Diplomacy. Introd. By Donald Cameron Watt.
- Ford, Ken; Brian, Tony (2000). The Rhineland 1945: The Last Killing Ground in the West. Oxford: Osprey. ISBN 1-85532-999-9.
- Rowe, Michael (31 July 2003). From Reich to State: The Rhineland in the Revolutionary Age, 1780-1830. ISBN 9780521824439.
- Sperber, Jonathan (1989). "Echoes of the French Revolution in the Rhineland, 1830-1849". Central European History. 22 (2): 200–217. S2CID 144043871.
- Sperber, Jonathan (20 December 1992). Rhineland Radicals: The Democratic Movement and the Revolution of 1848-1849. ISBN 0691008663.