Question

Select all issues that led to the French Revolution.

Answer 1

These four items were issues that led to the French Revolution:

• resentment toward French monarchy
• an economic crisis in France
• resentment toward social structures
• heavy taxation of the business owners

Some details:

• The French monarchy had been taking more power for itself over against the nobles, and so some of the nobles were looking for ways to reduce the power of the king.  Plus the new queen, Marie Antoinette, from Austria, was met with much personal resentment by the French people.
• The economic crisis was essentially government bankruptcy.  The government had accumulated 4 billion livres worth of debt by 1789. 1 livre in their monetary terms then = approx. $4 in our monetary terms in the US today, so that’s a $16 billion national debt. 40% of the government’s budget was going to pay interest on debts. And it kept getting worse. France provided 1 billion livres of support to the Americans during their war for independence against Britain.  So, by  1786, government expenses were outpacing income by about 200 million livres in a year's time.  The debts kept piling on, and it was reaching a point when lenders were starting to say no to any further loans. The government had reached a position where it could not go forward without levying even more oppressive tax burdens on the people, and the people weren’t willing to pay.
• As for social structures and taxation of business owners:  Prior to the French Revolution, the vast majority of the people (98% of the population), were all considered "the lower class" or "commoners," referred to as the 3rd Estate.  The clergy was classified as the 1st Estate.  Nobles were the 2nd Estate.  The 1st and 2nd Estates (ranking clergy and the nobility) tended to cooperate with each other to their own advantage over against the 3rd Estate.  The 1st and 2nd Estates were mostly tax exempt, with the 3rd Estate paying the fees and taxes that supported them and the monarchy.  Bourgeois merchant-class folks were also part of the 3rd Estate and had much more economic advantage than peasants, but that also meant they were taxed extremely heavily and continued to be slighted on political rights.

Answer 2

- The economic crisis
- Resentment toward French Monarchy
- Heavy taxation

These factors compounded on top of each other and contributed to the start of the French Revolution.