Rhineland
The Rhineland (German: Rheinland) today is the general name for areas of Germany along the river Rhine between Bingen in the south and the Dutch border in the north. To the west the area stretches to the borders with Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands; on the eastern side it only encompasses the towns and cities along the river. Except for the Saar this area more or less corresponds with the modern use of the term. The southern and eastern parts are mainly hill country (Westerwald, Hunsrück, Taunus and Eifel), cut by river valleys, principally the Rhine and Mosel. The north takes in the Ruhr valley. Some of the larger cities in the Rhineland include Aachen, Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Koblenz, Krefeld, Leverkusen, Trier.
History
Anciently lands of the German Franks, after the collapse of the French Empire in the 19th century, the German and Dutch[1] speaking regions at the middle and lower course of the Rhineland were reincorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. The Prussian administration reorganized the territory into the Rhine Province (also known as Rhenish Prussia), a term continuing in the names of the modern German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.
Following the First World War the western part of Rhineland was occupied, until June 1930, by the Entente forces (mainly British) and demilitarized by the German army under the Treaty of Versailles; this was reaffirmed at Locarno. However, on 7 March 1936, arguing that the Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance signed on 2 May 1935 was irreconcilable with the Rhine Pact of Locarno[2], The German Wehrmacht reocccupied the Rhineland with an estimated 20,000 troops, which caused joyous celebrations across Germany.
See also
External links
Sources
- Berber, F.J., Dr.Jur., editor, Locarno, William Hodge & Co. Ltd. London, etc., 1936.
- Williamson, David G., The British in Germany 1918-1930, Berg Publishers Ltd., Oxford U.K., 1991, ISBN: 0-85496-584
