Editing Rhineland (section)

==Term==
[[File:Rheinland.svg|thumb|Coat of arms of the Rhineland]]
Historically, the term "'''Rhinelands'''"<ref>{{cite book |last=Dickinson |first=Robert E. |year=1964 |title=Germany: A regional and economic geography |edition=2nd |location=London |publisher=Methuen |pages=357f |asin=B000IOFSEQ }}</ref> refers to a loosely defined region encompassing the land on the banks of the  Rhine, which were settled by [[Ripuarian Franks|Ripuarian]] and [[Salian Franks]] and became part of Frankish [[Austrasia]]. In the [[High Middle Ages]], numerous [[Imperial State]]s along the river emerged from the former [[stem duchy]] of [[Lotharingia]], without developing any common political or cultural identity.

A "Rhineland" conceptualization can be traced to the period of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] from the sixteenth until the eighteenth centuries when the Empire's [[Imperial Estates]] (territories) were grouped into regional districts in charge of defense and judicial execution, known as [[Imperial Circles]]. Three of the ten circles through which the Rhine flowed referred to the river in their names: the [[Upper Rhenish Circle]], the [[Electoral Rhenish Circle]], and the [[Lower Rhenish-Westphalian Circle]] (very roughly equivalent to the present-day German federal state of [[North Rhine Westphalia]]). In the twilight period of the Empire, after the [[War of the First Coalition]], a short-lived [[Cisrhenian Republic]] was established (1797–1802). The term covered the whole French annexed territory west of the Rhine (German: ''{{lang|de|Linkes Rheinufer}}''), but also included a small portion of the bridgeheads on the eastern banks. After the defeat of the [[First French Empire|French empire]], the regions of [[Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg|Jülich-Cleves-Berg]] and [[Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine|Lower Rhine]] were annexed{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} to the [[Kingdom of Prussia]]. In 1822 the Prussian administration reorganized the territory as the [[Rhine Province]] (''Rheinprovinz'', also known as Rhenish Prussia), a tradition that continued in the naming of the current [[States of Germany|German states]] of [[Rhineland-Palatinate]] and [[North Rhine-Westphalia]]. 

In the early 1800s, [[Rhine Province|Rhinelanders]] settled the [[Missouri Rhineland]], a German cultural region and wine-producing area in the U.S. [[State of Missouri]], and named it after noticing similarities in soil and topography to the Rhineland in [[Europe]]. By 1860, nearly half of all settlers in Missouri Rhineland came from [[Koblenz]], capital of the [[Rhine Province]].<ref name="missouriimmigrantwomensettlement">{{cite book |title=Immigrant Women in the Settlement of Missouri|author=Robyn Burnett|author2=Ken Luebbering|year=2005|publisher=University of Missouri Press|page=111}}</ref><ref name="walterdkampfhoefner">{{cite book |title=The Westfalians: From Germany to Missouri|author=Walter D. Kamphoefner|year=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|page=103}}</ref>

The western part of the [[Occupation of the Rhineland|Rhineland was occupied]] by [[Triple Entente|Entente]] forces from the end of the [[First World War]] until 1930. Under the 1919 [[Treaty of Versailles]], German military presence in the region was banned, a restriction which the government of [[Weimar Germany]] pledged to honor in the 1925 [[Locarno Treaties]]. Nazi Germany [[Remilitarization of the Rhineland|remilitarized the territory]] in 1936 as part of a diplomatic test of will three years before the outbreak of the [[Second World War]].