Louis XVI had to call an estates because the middle class was growing and the nobility was getting less powerful than what it use to be. The middle class was no longer comfortable with the old regime. These ideas came from famous writers or economist as Voltaire or turgot they where theorist of the enlightment. The French middle didn’t like the government and the reason was that France was in an financial crises and because of this Louis XVI had to increase the taxes. France was stock with financial problems because of the wars and the depth. The French middle class didn’t understand why france was in such a bad state and that Great Britain had depth as well but wasn’t in such a horrible state. The reason was that nobles didn’t pay depth or not enough. In 1614 the ministers of the country tried to make a new law that would change the country completely, the law was that the nobles or the rich had to pay more money to the government like in the G-B but all the attempt failed because the court was mostly ruled by nobles and not by people from the middle class. Thirdly, French where asking Louis XVI to do an estates general because the situation in the country wasn’t fair at all because during these days people where categories in three class. The first one was the first estate and it constituted by rich people often nobles the second estate who was the biggest fear of Louis XVI weren’t nobles and some of them were rich and that is the class that started the revolution in 1789. The last class was the third estate and they where really poor they didn’t have anything to drink or even to eat. The third estate wasn’t consider well at all by the first estate because they re vote was not as important as the vote of a person from the first estate and the meeting. In 1789, Louis XVI felt that the power was drifting form him and that he didn’t have as much power as he use to have. The French were in depth because of the war that Louis XIV did and they had massive financial problems and he didn’t feel as powerful as Louis XIV or other kings… French citizens didn’t like him Louis because he was only taxing the third estate and the second. The first estate didn’t had to pay not a lot of money to the government nearly noting and the 1 minister Jacques Neker decided that they should do an estate meeting to change all of this as France was in a financial and political problems. Louis XVI didn’t really have a strong and a powerful character than he wasn’t sure that if he was talking about this he would get killed by the first estate that was in fact keeping him king of France. Louis xvi had no idea how to cope with this situation it was the first time for him that he fell in danger and he didn’t want to lose his power. The third estate didn’t look at him like if he was a leader or even chosed by god because he couldn’t control the country and his wife Marie-Antoinette was spending a lot of money and she didn’t care about the financial crise that was hitting the country at this particular moment. The third estate and the middle class where both rising in the fact that they where against monarchy. The parlement that didn’t had a lot of power didn’t like Louis XVI for example the big clash between them in 1766. Most of the French didn’t trust anymore the parlement and Louis XVI. 1783 the financial crisis was already there but the political crises started to happen.
Finally, Louis xvi had to call a general estates in 1789 and it was the first one since 1614. The general states started in may and they sat for several weeks talking about France problems and they arrived on an impasse already at the first item on the agenda. The impasse was weather they should vote by estates giving the first and the second estate advantage, which was the kings choice, It was brought to an end when the Third Estate formed into a National assembly inviting the other two to join, against the wishes of the king, signaling the outbreak of the French revolution.