As a result of the Treaty of Versailles the left bank of the Rhine is occupied by Allied troops. After the Reich has fallen into arrears with its high reparations, the areas on the right bank of the Rhine and the Ruhr Region partly become insolvent and are occupied by French troops. 

 

As a consequence, the western Prussian provinces become national crisis areas. The population passively resists the occupants. This however leads to serious food and economy restrictions throughout the republic, so that resistance is abandoned in 1923.
An independent sense of identity develops in the region after the Ruhr occupation.