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The enlightenment period.
The enlightenment period stood for, Live, Liberty, Freedom, and equality. and an age of thinking, to use common sense and science to explain the world. The Old Regime did not support these ideas as naturally monarchy did not. As they became popular between the common folk of the third estate, they were starting to believe in them selves that they should be equal to the royals. As these Ideas circulated throughout France so did the unrest between the people and the government. -
Financial Crisis: the king and queen.
many things can attribute to the financial crisis that had almost alone started the french revolution. the first would be the king, Louis XVI, and his Wife and Queen, Marie Antoinette. they both led a very excessive and extravagant lifestyles. Antoinette's gambling and her clothing choices had also attributed to it. it was apparent that he loved food, as you can see in his self portrait. It was almost mocking to the general public as they had to deal with starvation and hunger. -
Financial crisis: Bad harvest and taxing
the years of 1788-1789, there was great agriculture strain leaving food shortages and prices to rise, leaving the poorest and lowest of the three estates starving and angry while the rich and noble feasted. The taxation system of the french was quite counter productive to the economy. they only taxed the third estate and little of the rich and nobles, only adding fuel to the social unrest against the government. -
Financial Crisis: Debt and Wars
Two wars had almost left France bankrupt. The American Revolution and the one before The french and Indian war. to make matters worse before King Louis XVI came into power previous generations had left a huge debt to deal with he was not qualified or educated to fix. -
Estates General Meeting and National Assembly
At this point everything is almost at a boiling point, the king calls the estates general, a meeting of all the representatives from all three estates to meet, to address the financial crisis. the third estate rebels to the unfair voting system that the third estate only had one vote all together, they separated called them selves the National Assembly, soon after they made the Tennis Court Oath, exclaiming that they would not rest or separate till a new constitution was made.
