The Occupation of the Rhineland placed the region of Germany west of the Rhine river and four bridgeheads to its east under the control of the victorious Allies of World War I from 1 December 1918 until 30 June 1930.

The purpose of the occupation was to give France and Belgium security against any future German attack and serve as a guarantee for Germany's reparations obligations.

Following the signing of the Locarno Treaties that settled Germany's western border in late 1925, the northern occupation zone around Cologne was evacuated in January 1926.

After a "final" agreement on reparations was reached in the 1929 Young Plan, the occupation of the Rhineland ended on 30 June 1930, five years earlier than originally set down in the Treaty of Versailles.

At the peace negotiations that began in Versailles in January 1919, French prime minister Georges Clemenceau sought to fix France's border with Germany at the Rhine.

He saw the idea, which had originated with General Ferdinand Foch, as the only way to remain secure against Germany, noting that it had invaded France four times in 100 years (1814, 1815, 1870 and 1914).

The key article (428) states: As a guarantee for the execution of the present Treaty by Germany, the German territory situated to the west of the Rhine, together with the bridgeheads [at Cologne, Koblenz, Mainz and Kehl, per Article 429], will be occupied by Allied and Associated troops for a period of fifteen years from the coming into force of the present Treaty.

While the negotiations for the Treaty of Versailles were in progress, the region was under a state of siege and the number of occupation troops stood at approximately 240,000 (220,000 French and 20,000 Belgian).

[15] In March and April 1920, a violent workers' uprising in the Ruhr district was suppressed by the German Reichswehr with assistance from units of the paramilitary Freikorps.

[16] In March 1921, Germany created a special department within the Ministry of the Interior to handle matters relating to the occupied territories.

Most French and Belgian authorities either agreed with him or wanted at least to have the Rhineland separated from the state of Prussia, whereas the British and Americans were hesitant to accept such proposals, if not opposed to them outright.

[16] Hans Adam Dorten, a German lawyer who had fought in World War I, declared a separate Rhineland Republic on 1 June 1919, but he had little support and it quickly failed.

Lack of popular support also brought a quick end to an unrelated attempt in 1923 to set up a separatist government under the French garrison.

[17] On 11 January 1923, French and Belgian troops occupied the industrial Ruhr district east of the Rhine after Germany fell behind in the reparations payments required of it under the Treaty of Versailles.

[15] Expulsion of "undesirables", which was permissible under terms of the treaty, led to 40,000 heads of household and 110,000 family members being forced to leave the French occupied territory (numbers do not include the Ruhr occupation).

Paul Tirard, in a campaign conducted largely independently of the French government, tried to win the Germans over through a policy of "peaceful penetration" that included cultural events and special benefits.

A press agency was set up in Koblenz, and in Mainz a bilingual magazine was published with the aim of reviving the "spiritual connection" between Germany and France.

Tirard's propaganda efforts overall had little effect in either the Rhineland or France, although the German press picked up on them as an emotionally laden topic to use against the French.

The German propaganda campaign was poorly coordinated until the cabinet-level Ministry for the Occupied Territories was established in August 1923 and the Rheinische Volkspflege (Rhineland People's Welfare) was placed under its control.

Are we still willing to put up with the brutality, the acts of thievery and murder, the vilification, the desecrations, the expulsions and bestial harassment perpetrated everywhere by the French and Belgian intruders?

Are we still willing to bring upon ourselves the bloody French and Belgian courts that condemn innocent Germans to bestial death sentences, inhuman prison terms and extortionate fines?

[16]The most notable of the propaganda campaigns was the Germans' "Black Horror on the Rhine" (Schwarze Schmach), a racist appeal against the African colonial soldiers who made up part of the French occupation troops.

The German propaganda push took shape after the failed Kapp Putsch of March 1920 and was supported by the government in Berlin and widely across the political spectrum, with the exception of the far left Independent Social Democrats and the Communist Party of Germany.

[23] The British occupation zone around Cologne was to have been vacated in January 1925, but it was delayed by the French due to disagreements about the German army's compliance with the armaments reduction requirements imposed on it in the Treaty of Versailles.

[4] After Germany accepted the Young Plan, which was negotiated in a second attempt to settle the issue of German reparations, the Allies agreed to evacuate the Rhineland by 30 June 1930, five years before the date set in the Treaty of Versailles.

General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces (A. E. F.), created the Third Army for the purpose, which in early 1919 comprised some 250,000 men.

[28] In July 1919, the Third Army was disbanded and replaced by the American Forces in Germany (AFG) under the command of Major General Henry Tureman Allen.

[6] The Siamese Expeditionary Forces participated in the occupation until 1919 with their troops stationed in Neustadt an der Weinstraße, located in the French area.