 While Rehweiler could still claim nine families, many other nearby villages were quite empty of people.Migration to the area helped raise the population levels, but French King Louis XIV's wars of conquest brought new hardship.Beginning in 1797, the Palatinate belonged to France, and Rehweiler belonged to the "Mairie" (“Mayoralty”) of Quirnbach, the Canton of Kusel, the Arrondissement of Birkenfeld and the Department of Sarre (whose capital was Trier).