RHINELAND, THE. In the loose political sense the word "Rhineland" is used to designate the Prussian province called Rhein-provinz as well as parts of the Prussian province of Hesse Nassau, parts of the Free State of Hesse, the Bavarian Palatinate and most of the Free State of Baden. The Prussian Rhine prov ince, situated on both banks of the Rhine, embraces 23973 sq.km. with 7,623,063 inhabitants (exclusive of the over 1,912 sq.km. of the Saar with 830,00o inhabitants).
The old Rhen ish territory, a medley of feudal states partly lay, partly clerical, had been annexed by France by the peace of Luneville i8o1. Most of them were handed over to Prussia by the Congress of Vienna on Feb. 1 o, 1815. On the conclusion of the World War French policy aimed at detaching the left bank of the Rhine, which would cut away from Germany 8% of her territory, II% of her population, 12% of her coal supply and 8o% of her iron ores, including Alsace, in order to ensure the security of France. In the end a compromise was effected: 1. The left bank of the Rhine remained German. 2. It was to be occupied together with the bridgeheads by allied troops in three zones for 15 years, the northern zone to be evacuated after five, the next after ten, the third after 15 years, if Germany faithfully carried out the con ditions of the peace. (Art. 428-29.) The left bank of the Rhine and a strip of 5o km. on the right bank was to be completely de militarized. (Art. 42-44.) The occupation was to serve the double purpose of guarantee for the execution of the treaty, and of security to France against military aggression.
An interallied commission was set up by a separate Rhineland agreement, composed of representatives of France, England, Bel gium and the United States, with the right to issue ordinances for the security of the Allied forces. It was not to interfere with the ordinary civil German administration, but might erect a cus tom barrier in order to safeguard the economic interests of the population (Art. 270).
France had allowed the Rhine land to remain part of the German republic, on the understanding that a pact of guarantee would be made with her by England and the United States. As the United States refused to ratify it, this guarantee lapsed completely. Even before this failure, French military authorities had fostered separatist movements on the left bank of the Rhine. An old established anti-Prussian preju dice of the Catholic population of the Rhine province had been worked up by a fear of the spread of Bolshevism. A genuine movement for decentralization had arisen, whose demands went as far as the creation of a new Rhineland State within the German republic. The French military authorities strongly supported Dr. Dorten's enterprise to create an independent Rhenish republic though all German parties kept aloof from it. It failed from the start as the commander in chief of the American expeditionary forces refused to have anything to do with it (May 22, 1919 ). When Dr. Dorten was arrested on German unoccupied territory (July 24, 1920) the French high commissioner demanded his ex tradition to the occupied territory and his subsequent release. The occupation of the Ruhr (q.v.) by French and Belgian troops (Jan. ro, 1923) extended to Karlsruhe (March 2, 1923) and to the districts between the bridgeheads on the right bank of the Rhine (Feb. 25). The American army withdrew on Jan. Iv, 1923. The British thereafter were in a minority on the Rhineland commission. They prevented however the extension of its rule over the newly occupied districts, which were put under military control. But they could not stop the Rhineland commission from stretching its powers and from issuing decrees for the Rhineland, identical with those made by the military for the Ruhr district, though they did not carry them out in the Cologne zone, a British zone, which for some time was almost blockaded by the French.