List two examples used by the authors to illustrate the precarious nature of the new country in 1789

Your question is incomplete but I will try to answer. Early countryhood proved very precarious for the United States. First, it is the first country with a modern democratic constitution as its supreme law, a novelty at the time where countries are under the heavy-handed rule of kings or royalty. Taxes, the new government feared that taxes might instill rebellion, but were needed to pay national debt. It culminated with the Whiskey Rebellion. The new nation also feared invasion (again) by Britain, and this fear was averted by the signing of the Jay Treaty normalizing relations between the two countries.

it attempted to use force to bring democracy to certain countries.