What exactly was the rationale behind introducing references in c++?

Question

From the discussion that has happened in my recent question (Why is a c++ reference considered safer than a pointer?), it raises another question in my mind: What exactly wa

Answer 1

To allow for operator overloading. They wanted operators to be overloadable both for objects and pointers, so they needed a way to refer to an object by something other than a pointer. Hence the reference was introduce. It is in "The Design and Evolution of C++".