Cause Of The French Revolution

The causes of the French Revolution are vast and vary greatly in what they concern. What could be seen as the flame that ignited the French Revolution's fire is France's ever-growing population – when King Louis XVI took power in 1770 he commanded rule over twenty percent of Europe's then non-Russian population, some thirty million people. This massive population combined with inefficient farming techniques served to create food shortages, particularly in the grain utilized to make bread, a staple in French diet. Economic hardships caused through debt accrued due to France's involvement in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War further served to inflate market prices of goods, particularly that of bread. This sewed dissent withing the common man, which would later prove disastrous.
The Estates-General – a form of parliament that represented the three estates of French society, the first being the clergy, the second the aristocracy, and the third the commoners – was a highly polarized body of representation, pitting the noble aristocracy and clergy estates against that of the common man. At the Estates-General of 1789, ideals proved immiscible as the first and second estates arrived with their notions of highborn privilege – the idea they deserved special rights simply due to their noble birthplace-- and the educated, common man of the third estate brought radical new ideals of Enlightenment, such as those reflected in Robespierre's motto of “Liberty. Equality.