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The bicentenary of Waterloo witnessed a flurry of publications devoted to various aspects of the Napoleonic Wars, and though the anniversary has now passed, there appears to be no let-up in the vol...

In April 1792 the French Legislative Assembly declared war on the Habsburg Emperor Francis II. Within three years the forces of the Republic conquered the German‐speaking region to the west of the Rhine. Native public officials in the occupied areas faced the dilemma of whether or not to ‘collaborate’ with the invader. They confronted incompatible demands on their loyalties from the exiled Rhenish governments, the French, and the Rhineland's one‐and‐a‐half million inhabitants. The continuation of the revolutionary wars, and failure to reach an international settlement, placed public officials in the occupied areas in a state of limbo. Lacking any legal framework as a point of reference for their actions, and buffeted by the changing fortunes of war abroad and ideological conflict at home, Rhenish communities and the local officials who became their representatives were instead forced to rely on their own resources and strengths. Public officials in particular lived with the possibility of a retur...