ABSTRACT
The Revolution threatened the Reich in three ways. First, it represented a general assault on the traditional order and was soon recognized as such, although this did not necessarily make German rulers tremble in their buckled shoes nor wish to embark on a counterrevolutionary crusade. Secondly, it provoked popular unrest in Germany, or at least appeared to do so to contemporaries who activated the existing conflict resolution and public order mechanisms to counter it. Finally, the outbreak of the Revolutionary Wars in April 1792 posed an external threat that had to be met by peaceful compromise
or military retaliation. It was this third aspect that placed the Reich’s continued existence into question, because it destroyed the pre-revolutionary international balance sustaining the political status quo and released the indigenous forces seeking to partition Germany.
