The Rhineland under the Prussians (from 1815)

Science

During the time of Prussia many important events occurred which brought the Rhineland and Westphalia economic and technological progress. In 1818 the Friedrich Wilhelm University was founded in Bonn, one of a total of only three new Prussian universities to be established. In 1838 the first Rhenish railway line was opened. Further important consequences followed. The Cologne-Minden railway, completed in 1847/48, not only connected the Rhineland with Westphalia, but also brought the west nearer to the capital city.
Intensified by the restorative tendency of the Prussian King, conflicts increased after 1830.

It became increasingly obvious that the new order established at the Vienna Congress, after the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, was far too backward-looking and proved to be unworkable against a background of rapid changes in politics, economics and society. The attempt to reestablish the "old order" was intended to strengthen the principle of monarchy and the solidarity among monarchies in order to defend themselves against revolutionary (=democratic) tendencies. In addition to the repression of democratic attempts, national interests and hopes were especially disappointed in the German provinces. The widening gap between nascent industrialization, the increasing impoverishment of sections of the population, as well as demands for liberalization and political participation were resisted by the State authorities by strictly banning the people from engaging in political activities.