How far were the ideas of the "Philosophes" responsible for the outbreak of the of revolution in France in 1789?

Another cause of the French revolution was the economic crisis of the 1780s. France became bankrupt due to huge government and royal spending which included the funding the American war of independence – which was ironically a revolution itself. France wanted to show Britain, their enemies how strong they were by helping the Americans fight British and win the war. However this competition against the British only led to financial ruin as France became bankrupt. The many wars France was included in the 18th century landed them in colossal debt which put them in crisis in the 1770s-80s. Without money to fund the country, the public especially, the third estate were angered that they had to starve and suffer whilst the royals lived in absolute luxury and the government were fighting a war which had no benefit to them whatsoever and cost them 1 billion livres. Marie Antoinette – the queen and wife of the king was also responsible for mass spending on unnecessary spending which only furthered anger from the public. This caused a lot of revolutionaries to take action and could be seen as the catalyst for the revolution – it was the tension building up from other factors that was magnified in the economic crisis which led to the third estate – primarily the middle classes (Marxist idea) rebelling.  This economic crisis was hugely responsible for the outbreak because it was the catalyst for the outbreak – without it, people would have continued to suffer as the tension built up. Although it was a main cause, many philosophe believed in ideas which could have countered this economic crisis such as a the Physicocrats who believe din fair trade, an idea used today. However this shows us that although the philosophe knew how to avoid this kind of financial ruin, as they were not influential enough it could not be avoided and this ultimately shows how the economic crisis was probably the main cause of the outbreak.

Furthermore, political errors contributed to the cause of revolutionary outbreak in the 1780s. As the government was corrupt and hugely unjust towards the lower classes due to the Parlement consisting of aristocracy and nobles, agreements on reform for the country and taxation system could not be decided on. The inequality between the social classes were huge which meant that many people This meant that the poor had to pay the highest taxes despite being the poorest as the poor (third estate mainly) made up the maroty – around 80% of the population at that time. A universal land tax – the idea of financial minister Calonne was needed but no one agreed. Numerous assemblies were held to come to an agreement however the assembly of notables (high figures of society – bishops, nobility leaders etch) believed that the reforms would hit them the most and the Paris Parlement refused reform as they believed in 'no taxation without representation' where they could not come to conclusions and reforms on taxation without say of other estates. Therefore Estate generals – representatives from all three estates were assembled to come to a conclusion. The king at this time decided to take matters into his own hands and assert his authority -  huge mistake. He exiled the Paris Parlement. They were distraught and this only led to the outbreak of notables. This links into the sense that the King was too weak for the job – no one listened to him and his decisions were controlled by the government so that the reforms he so desperately needed to make were blocked by the richest of the country. Had the king been more powerful then this revolution may have not happened. Again, many philosophe such as Rousseau believed in democracy which could have prevented this but as his influence was not strong enough to cause reform, the political crisis still took place and caused this revolution.  The disorganisation and outbreak of nobilities were also responsible for this revolution.

Overall many factors contributed to the French Revolution in the 1780s. The enlightenment meant that many philosophe were having a lot of influence of the way regarded the way France was run at that time, and they started to think for themselves. There was also an huge economic crisis which included the France becoming bankrupt due to huge government spending on war and on the royals. The inequality between people was also a catalyst for revolution and the political errors made by the King and assemblies meant that people were unhappy about the way France was run. Although the philosophe had many great ideas to how France should have been run, they remained as only ideas as their influence was only strong enough to get people thinking about reform and not actually take action as the government could easily remove threat form select few individuals and not large masses of people. Therefore the philosophe were only responsible for the revolution to a certain extent as many other factors were the true catalysts for the outbreak. But without this period of enlightenment many believe that the revolution may have no occurred until much later therefore the philosophe did have influence just not enough to cause immediate action until other factors occurred much later.