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French Revolution flag_france_color - Coggle Diagram
French Revolution 
Intellectual cause
The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment touted ideas of justice, fairness, noblesse oblige, and the right to revolution.
As Enlightenment ideals became the new norm, the blind trust in the clergy turned into speculation and soon after resentment for the class differences.
As well, Enlightenment philosophes were antagonized by the clergy, creating more of a divide.
The monarchy was also ruled under the idea that the king was chosen by God, thus giving him the right to authority. Without this faith, the people began to question who should really rule.
To talk about the new ideas founded in the Enlightenment, people began to meet more often in private to talk about what they thought, this allowed them to talk about their current grievances with the government. This also created a new norm of where and in what form people socialized.
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Social Cause
Social injustices
The population was divided into three estates (first clergy, second nobility, and third everyone else) each estate got one vote, meaning the tiny less than 1% of the population could decide for the other 99% no matter what as long as they agreed.
The people finally got sick of this when the king called for a meeting of the estates-general (all the estates) to vote. The majority of the people voted for reform, but as the third state, they couldn't outvote the first and second. Then, they formed the National Assembly as the "true voice" of France, so they could get a new constitution made.
The first two estates had all the exemptions (tax, law, etc,) while the third estate had none and was treated harshly, building resentment in the common people. This system meant that the rich got richer and the average person couldn't even afford bread.
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Additionally, the monarchy was absolute, meaning the average person had no say in what happened to the country because the king was in charge of absolutely everything.
The 99% of people that were not in a place of authority and power had no privileges, no exemptions, and all the burdens while the 1% had the reverse
Population boom
The population of France increased by about nine times more in the 1700's than it did a century ago in the years 1600-1700.
France (from all the wars, deficit spending, and generally bad decisions) couldn't properly support such a large population, which led to the masses starving.
80% of the people from this population boom also lived in rural communities, which were hit hardest by the famine and other issues in France.
This also meant that they were much more people in the third estate now than ever at the time, meaning much more unhappy people that could revolt.
Most of these peasants barely earnt enough to feed their families in times of poor harvest, so high taxation, the Great Fear, and majority of the millions of people of France experiencing it because of the population boom made for an ideal breeding place for an angry population ready to overthrow the crown.
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Economical causes
Bankruptcy
The king and queen kept spending money they didn't have, which put France in incredible debt and made it almost bankrupt. Added onto the very unequal taxation (essentially the bottom 99% paid for everything the top 1% did through heavy taxes with little exceptions) and you have a bunch of poor people who can't afford to pay anything else to the rich people who aren't helping at all (creates very angry poor people.)
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Reforms to the financial system were promptly rejected, and the Assembly of Notables prevented taxation for nobility through a vote in 1787.
Furthermore, the French economy was based on agriculture, with majority of the third estate being farmers as well. To the people, the heavy taxation and financial turmoil was basically like taking the crops they worked hard for and spitting in their faces.
high unemployment and high cost of bread
Even something like bread (basically the entire diet of a French worker) cost 90% of a worker's pay for a day, leaving either no money for other necessities or no money for bread. People had to eat grass or roots to survive. Additionally, half the population was out of a job, leading to sky rocketing crime rates especially in rural areas to steal food.
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Bread was super expensive because there was a poor harvest that year, meaning less grain
Even worse, there were rumours that the aristocracy would starve the people even more. Being scared of starving, the peasants revolted (the Great Fear in the summer of 1789)
In usual lean times, most peasants had barely enough to feed their families. Now that the cost of bread was on the rise, no one was fed at all, leading to a starving population.
Political causes
Louis XVI
King Louis XVI was extremely incompetent and indecisive, leaving the politics to Marie Antoinette at times (who also did not handle things well)
Just like Marie, Louis spent exorbitant amounts in a time where the average person was starving. Plus, he just continued his hobby of hunting and stayed in the palace while the people starved.
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Extremely out of touch with the people. Summoned the Estates-General (basically all the people in France, but the people that aren't nobility and clergy don't get a choice if the top 1% agrees on something) just to ask the common people how they felt about getting taxed way more so he could pay for a war that wasn't on his territory.
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Marie Antoinette
While people were starving (bread was super expensive,) Marie was living it up with lavish balls and buying clothes.
Vehemently rejected reform, which obviously did not make the starving third estate think well of her.
“Marie-Antoinette.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 11 Feb. 2025, www.britannica.com/biography/Marie-Antoinette-queen-of-France.
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Storming of the Bastille
The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789 created momentum for the revolution and was the first time the people began physically to fight back against the hierarchy after the forming of the National Assembly. As well, the Bastille was a symbol of royal tyranny, so taking it down was like taking down royal authority.
The success of this began to lead to more and more violence such as the attacks on the nobles in 1789.
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