Westphalia, Germany 

German WESTFALEN, historic region of northwestern
Germany, comprising (with the former state of Lippe) the
present federal Land (state) of North Rhine-Westphalia and
parts of the LSnder (states) of Lower Saxony and Hesse. 

The ancient Saxons were divided into three main groups: the
Westphalians, the Angrians (German: Engern), and the
Eastphalians (Ostfalen). The Westphalians, who had settled in
the area of the Ems and Hunte rivers about AD 700, spread south
almost as far as Cologne and in 775 resisted the advance of the
Franks under Charlemagne. For about three centuries, this region
retained its separate identity in spite of the rise of the more
powerful aggregated Saxon stem duchy. In the 12th century the
old distinction between Westphalians and Angrians fell into
disuse, and all Saxony west of the Weser River came to be called
Westphalia. 

The archbishops of Cologne received Westphalia as a duchy in
1180, but the duchy was in fact confined mainly to the area just
north of Cologne. Numerous other political entities grew up in
the region of Westphalia, among them the bishoprics of
MÙnster, Paderborn, OsnabrÙck, and Minden; the countships of
Waldeck, Schaumburg, Lippe, Ravensberg, and Mark (with
Limburg); the imperial city of Dortmund; and the abbey of Essen.
In 1512 the Lower Rhine-Westphalian circle (Kreis) of the Holy
Roman Empire was formed. 

From the early 17th century, the Hohenzollern rulers of
Brandenburg-Prussia gained territories in Westphalia and
became predominant there in 1803, when they acquired
Paderborn and most of MÙnster. At the same time,
Hesse-Darmstadt acquired Cologne's part of Westphalia.
OsnabrÙck went to Hanover and the rest of MÙnster to
Oldenburg. (see also Index: Hohenzollern dynasty) 

In 1807 Napoleon assigned most of traditional Westphalia to
the Grand Duchy of Berg. The Kingdom of Westphalia, which
he created for his brother J*rªme, was made up largely of
Prussian and Hanoverian possessions between the Weser and the
Elbe rivers and the greater part of electoral Hesse; its capital was
Kassel. The Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 restored most of old
Westphalia to Prussia, which then established a province of
Westphalia with its capital at MÙnster. Lippe and Waldeck
remained under sovereign princes; Hanover and Oldenburg were
awarded their former lands. In the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, the Ruhr valley became very densely populated and the
single most heavily industrialized area in the world. 

In 1946 the province of Westphalia, together with Lippe, was
incorporated in the Land of North Rhine-Westphalia (q.v.).
The north of the ancient Westphalia (most of it Prussian since
1866) went to the Land of Lower Saxony; and Waldeck
(attached to Prussian Hesse since 1929) became part of the new
Land of Hesse. 
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"Westphalia" Britannica Online. 
http://www.eb.com:180/cgi-bin/g?DocF=micro/636/91.html
[Accessed 31 July 1998].