1946, the Rhine Province was divided up between the newly founded states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate. Aftermath of World War I Following the Armistice of 1918, Allied forces occupied the Rhineland as far east as the river with some small bridgeheads on the east bank at places like Cologne. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 the occupation was continued and the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission was set up to supervise affairs. The treaty specified three occupation zones, which were due to be evacuated by Allied troops five, ten and finally 15 years after the formal ratification of the treaty, which took place in 1920, thus the occupation was intended to last until 1935. Initially, 5 zones of Occupation of the Rhineland were established, but the American Forces handed over their zone in 1923, since they had not ratified the Treaty of Versailles, to the French. The treaty also separated the Saar from the Province and administered by the League of Nations until a plebiscite in 1935, when the region was returned to Germany. In fact, the last Allied troops left Germany five years early, in 1930, in a goodwill reaction to the Weimar Republic's policy of reconciliation in the era of Gustav Stresemann and the Locarno Pact. Sections of the Rhineland, which had once belonged to the Habsburg Netherlands' Duchy of Limburg, were annexed by Belgium according to the Treaty of Versailles. The cantons of Eupen, Malmedy and Sankt Vith though (with the exception of Malmedy) German in culture and language, became the East Cantons of Belgium. Although a plebiscite was held in early 1920, it was not conducted as a secret ballot but required only those opposed to Belgian annexation to register their formal protest. Only a few did so because of the threat of a confiscation of ration cards. German is now the third official language of Belgium, along with French and Dutch (see German-Speaking Community of Belgium). After the enlargement of the French occupation zone by the American withdrawal from the occupation (1919–1930), the French encouraged the establishment of an independent Rhenish Republic by banking on traditional anti-Prussian resentments in the history of the Palatinate. In the end, the separatists failed to gain any decisive support among the population since they were viewed as puppets iof the French. The Treaty of Versailles also specified the demilitarization of the entire area to provide