Rhineland

The Rhineland (German: Rheinland) has become the name for several areas of Western Germany along the Middle and Lower Rhine.

Term

Historically, the Rhinelands refers (physically speaking) to a loosely defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in Central Europe, settled by Ripuarian and Salian Franks. In the Middle Ages, numerous Imperial States along the river emerged from the former stem duchy of Lotharingia, without developing any common political or cultural identity.

A "Rhineland" conceptualization did not evolve until the 19th century after the War of the First Coalition, when a short-lived Cisrhenian Republic was established on territory conquered by French troops. The term covered the whole occupied zone west of the Rhine (German: Linkes Rheinufer) including the bridge-heads on the eastern banks. After the collapse of the French dominated West Bank in the early 19th century, the regions of Lower Rhine and Jülich-Cleves-Berg were annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the Rhine Province (also known as Rhenish Prussia), a term continuing in the names of the German states of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia.

List of minor planets: 6001–7000