It was an official service, whilst maintaining cantonal sovereignty, not a federal intervention. Ten federal interventions have been carried out since 1848, nine of them during the 19th century, the tenth during the unrest in Geneva in 1932. Whilst the federal execution in the German Confederation was directed against a member state, which did not want to fulfil its obligations, the federal intervention was a help for the member state that was beset by unrest which it could not itself suppress. The federal execution was the legal equivalent to the "Reichsexekution" in the Holy Roman Empire and in the German Empire. In the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949, the term "Bundeszwang" (English: federal pressure) is used.