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How did the Treaty of Campo Formio change lands west of the Rhine River?
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Rhineland-Palatinate
St. Martin's Cathedral in Mainz, Germany.
Under the Treaty of Campo Formio (1797), the political landscape of the region west of the Rhine River underwent significant transformation. Austria agreed that France could annex the territories it occupied on the left bank of the Rhine, stretching from Basel to Andernach, including the city of Mainz.1
Following this agreement, the existing individual states in the region were dissolved, and religious holdings were secularized, effectively incorporating these lands into French territory. This shift marked a departure from the region's previous history of being fractured into numerous small, independent states with temporal and religious governments.2