secret of the fact that he would have preferred to annex the entirety of the Kingdom of Saxony. The province was formed from several territories: regions in Westphalia under Prussian rule since before 1800 (the Principality of Minden and the counties of Mark, Ravensberg and Tecklenburg) the Prince-Bishoprics Münster and Paderborn, acquired by Prussia in 1802–03; the northernmost parts of the geographically enormous Bishopric of Münster, however, became part of the Kingdom of Hanover or the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg the small County of Limburg, acquired in 1808 the portions of the Principality of Salm which had been annexed by France in 1810 and the southern part of the Duchy of Arenberg were acquired by Prussia in 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, the Duchy of Westphalia, placed under Prussian rule in 1816 following the Congress of Vienna the Sayn-Wittgensteiner principalities of Hohenstein and Berleburg, along with the principality of Nassau-Siegen (in 1817) In 1816, the district of Essen was transferred to the Rhine Province. The new province had an area of . The establishment of Westphalia and the neighbouring Rhine Province marked a decisive economic and demographic shift to the west for Prussia. It also marked a significant expansion of the number of Catholics in Prussia, which had hitherto been nearly exclusively Protestant. At the beginning of Prussian rule, the province had around 1.1 million inhabitants, of which 56% were Catholic, 43% Protestant, and 1% Jewish. With the foundation of the province, the new administrative structure created during the Prussian reforms was introduced. The administrative incorporation of the province into the Prussian state was chiefly accomplished by the first , Ludwig von Vincke. The province was divided administratively into three ("government districts"): Arnsberg, Minden, and Münster. The borders of the province were slightly altered in 1851 and during the Weimar Republic. In general, the Prussian administration focussed on the alignment of political institutions and administration, but legally they were distinct. In most parts of Westphalia, the General State Laws for the Prussian States (PrALR) were the fundamental basis of the law. In the Duchy of Westphalia and the two Sayn-Wittgensteiner principalities, however, the old regional legal traditions were retained until the introduction of the (civil law code) on 1 January 1900. Reaction to the establishment of the province The establishment of the province provoked different reactions in the region. In areas that had already been under Prussian control, like