Rhineland Resistance to Prussia?

To elaborate, was there every any chance of major resistance to Prussia's rule over its western territories in the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine, Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (those two later combined into the Rhine Province), and Province of Westphalia? After all, the provinces were pretty well-populated and different from the rest of Prussia, and even separated from the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia by other states in the German Confederation. Was there ever a possibility of them resisting Prussia's sudden rule over them at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, especially some kind of resistance sponsored by an outside power?
 
To elaborate, was there every any chance of major resistance to Prussia's rule over its western territories in the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine, Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (those two later combined into the Rhine Province), and Province of Westphalia? After all, the provinces were pretty well-populated and different from the rest of Prussia, and even separated from the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia by other states in the German Confederation. Was there ever a possibility of them resisting Prussia's sudden rule over them at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, especially some kind of resistance sponsored by an outside power?
The outside powers gave Prussia that land, so no hope of help
 
To elaborate, was there every any chance of major resistance to Prussia's rule over its western territories in the Grand Duchy of the Lower Rhine, Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg (those two later combined into the Rhine Province), and Province of Westphalia? After all, the provinces were pretty well-populated and different from the rest of Prussia, and even separated from the rest of the Kingdom of Prussia by other states in the German Confederation. Was there ever a possibility of them resisting Prussia's sudden rule over them at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, especially some kind of resistance sponsored by an outside power?


None to speak of.

If they'd had a choice, they'd have preferred a Catholic ruler - either Austrian or Bavarian - but neither was on offer. So they just made the best of it as "compulsory Prussians" though iirc there were some Draft riots in 1866.
 
I don't know much of the Rhineland, since I live in Southern Germany.

There are several cultural differences between the Rhineland and Prussia. For example, that the Rhineland is mostly catholic. (In the Weimar Republic, the catholic "Zentrumspartei" was strong in the area)
As far as I know, the population never really identified with Prussia.
There was the term Musspreußen (German Wikipedia: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musspreußen) (which could be translatet roughly as "have to be Prussians") for the inhabitants of the regions which came under Prussian control, but never really identified with Prussia.

I see some potential for resistance in the 1840-1860 if you use political Catholicism and if you create an earlier "Kulturkampf" before the German unification or the war of 1866. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kulturkampf)

If you want an independent Rhineland, you could also use the French Revolution to create a successful Cisrhenian Republic.
Cisrhen.Rep.1797.jpg.jpg


Another option would be to avoid the 1866 war and the 1870/71 war (so no annexation of Hannover or other areas which could link the Rhineland to the rest of Prussia) , and slowly create more and more differences and conflicts between the Rhineland and the rest of Prussia.

Here is an (German) article about the unification of the Rhineland with Prussia: http://www.deutschlandfunk.de/koeni...nlande-mit.871.de.html?dram:article_id=316206
It seems that parts of the Prussian Government thought that the area is far to liberal and had an far to high influence from Revolutionary France.
So there are cultural differences, but I never heard anything about real resistance.

In general, I see some small potential, but it doesn't seem to be enough to create an independence movement for the region.
Use either confessional differences or an revolutionary neighbor.
 
The famous Rhenish carnival parodies the Prussian soldiers, I've heard. That's some kind of resistance...
Actually they first and foremost caricature the soldiers of their states before the French occupation. As the first Cologne carnival society stated in their founding document, they dedicated it to the "worst soldiers of all times", the Cologne city army existing until 1794.

As to the OP question: There were frictions in the newly Prussian regions in the West (and lets not forget that some parts had been Prussian before, which often kept the Prussian government in the loop during the occupation), especially where the majority were catholic. But usually both sides tried to compromise. Even after an Archbishop of Cologne had been arrested (which primarily was his fault imo, though the catholics of the time might disagree) there was outrage, but no actions were taken. There were more disturbances over the first street lights in Bonn than over this incident.
Overall the Rhenish were mostly content with the Prussian rule, probably because they got to keep most benefits of the French occupations (like the law) for most of the 19th century, while no longer being subject to the drawbacks. That alone bought the Prussian government some good will. After 1871 there was some movement to separate from Prussia, but that had to do more with concerns about the uneven power between German member states (as the French had to learn after WWI, when they hoped to find separatists looking to break from Germany).
 
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