The French Revolution began in 1789 with the Storming of the Bastille. Over the next 10 years. the government of France would be in chaos, the king would be executed, and groups of revolutionaries would battle each other for power. France at this time, was an absolute monarchy ruled by the king. The country was divided into classes called estates. The clergy were regarded as the first Estate, the nobles the second state and finally the commoners the third estate which were the majority in France. People in each estate could not move from one estate to another, this did not give people a chance to improve their status. One can say, there wasn’t one single event or condition that led to the revolution but rather many factors contributed to the downfall of King Louis XIV. In 1789 the French government was in a major debt crisis. The King with his lavish spending and heavily …show more content…
During the second half of the 18th century, factors such as war, poor harvest and the lavish spending of King Louis XIV led to a financial crisis. At the time of the Revolution the majority of the French population were starving and people were going hungry and the monarchy just kept on spending carelessly which seemed that they did not care. It was even quoted that Marie Antoinette frequently stated “Let them eat cake” when she knew the Parisians were starving! Another, element that made the people unhappy was the dismissal of financial ministers who tried to bring in new reform to help france get back on its feet. The American Revolution was also a cause that encouraged the uprising. In 1783, the American Revolution ended and their victory inspired the idea of the “government that serves the people”. Fuel was set ablaze with the writings of people such as Voltaire and Rousseau that became accessible to the commoners in