His poor leadership, as shown through his extravagant spending even though his country was in debt as well as his inability to alleviate the financial crisis, caused the revolution to occur. He had inherited the debts of his predecessors, resulting in a severe national debt. The Seven Year War with Britain as well as the American War had caused France to go into further debt. Moreover, King Louis’s extravagant spending at the Palace of Versailles further aggravated the problem since the people were starving due to bad harvest and yet he was still spending excessively. Hence, the financial strain of servicing old debt and the excesses of the current royal court caused dissatisfaction with the monarchy, contributed to national unrest, and culminated in the revolution. Louis played an essential role in Revolution through his poor leadership and hence, he was the main reason in causing the French …show more content…
The people overall were unhappy with the French government as their needs were not met and many were in poverty. It propelled the people to challenge the monarchy’s reign as their discontent turned to resentment. For example, the third estate was displeased about the fact that they had to pay numerous taxes while the clergy and the nobles were exempt from most of the taxes. Peasants were required to pay a tenth of their income or produce to the church (the tithe), a land tax to the state (the taille), a 5% property tax (the vingtième), and a tax on the number of people in the family (capitation). Peasants were also obligated to pay taxes on the use of the nobles' mills, wine-presses, and bakeries (the banalitées). In good times, the taxes were burdensome; in harsh times, they were devastating. After a less-than-fulsome harvest, people would starve to death during the winter. Hence, the people of the 3rd estate were deeply unhappy since they were the ones supporting the other two estates and yet they had to pay so many taxes that they could barely make ends meet. Therefore, this resulted in popular discontent among the people, driving them to revolt against the monarchy and to bring about change. Hence, popular discontent is possible to be the main