Rhineland

Rhineland, German Rheinland, French Rhénanie, historically controversial area of western Europe lying in western Germany along both banks of the middle Rhine River.

Known in ancient Roman times as a buffer zone between Gaul and the Germanic peoples to the east, the Rhineland was later included in the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia. Later, the Rhineland was divided among the duchies of Lorraine (or Upper Lorraine and Lower Lorraine), Saxony, Franconia, and Swabia; but, during the late European Middle Ages and early modern period, the Rhineland became the seat of numerous territorial principalities. These included: in the north, the electoral archbishopric of Cologne, with the secular territories of Kleve (Cleves), Berg, and Jülich; in the central area, the electoral archbishoprics of Trier and of Mainz and the bishoprics of Worms and of Speyer, with the electoral Palatinate and the countship of Nassau; and, in the south, the bishopric of Strasbourg (Strassburg), with the cities and various lordships of Alsace and the margravate of Baden, with Breisgau.

Exploiting the troubles of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, France encroached on Lorraine in the 16th century; Brandenburg acquired Kleve and Mark in 1614, forming the nucleus of the future power of Prussia in the Rhineland; and the Thirty Years' War gave France a foothold in Alsace. Louis XIV's wars consolidated the French position on the Alsatian Rhine, but ducal Lorraine was not definitively incorporated in France until 1766. Napoleon moved France's frontier eastward to the Rhine River and, on the right (east) bank, created the Confederation of the Rhine.

After Napoleon's downfall, the Congress of Vienna (1814-15) limited France's frontier on the Rhine to the Alsatian zone again.