Between 1741 and 1746, France experienced very high economic growths, which lead to an increase in trade and production, and a vast improvement in living conditions and prosperity. However later on, France experienced a recession, like in other countries, thus resulting in chaos. Industry and commerce were badly affected, which lead to a decline in production and employment. Apart from this, natural occurrences also helped to ruin harvests, and even though the degree of starvation had been higher during the reign of Louis XIV, this time it had a great psychological impact on the classes. This helped to increase even more the social gap between the bourgeoisie and the peasantry, consequently deep resentment was formed. However this resentment was not only between the bourgeoisie and peasants, but also between the second and third states. In the attempt to solve their difficulties, the nobility or second state, passed downwards to the bourgeoisie or third state, all the economic burden, thus widening the hostility between the states. Even though these struggles between social classes did not have an immediate effect due to temporary restrains, it later on became a significant cause for the breakout of the revolution.
Although each class’ had its own aspirations and achievements suiting their interests, they had one common goal. As the regime was no longer serving their interests or guaranteeing them, it had to be put down or modified. Therefore the regime, combined with other pressures, finally collapsed. Each class then developed tactics to fulfill their interests and implement them to the new government which was under construction. The nobility feared absolutism profoundly, and with the banishment of the parlements, which cherished the power of the nobility, they were even more scared. Therefore the first thing the nobility did was to restore these parlements, and after they demanded the establishment of the Estates General, which also gave them power. The bourgeoisie agreed on the establishment of the Estates General because it would allow them to have more control on political institutions and to reconstruct the economic structure. However this idea changed when they realized that representative institutions rather than the Estates General would bring them more advantages, both politically and economically. On the other hand, peasants regarded the Estates General as a solution to all unequal taxation, for the peasantry suspected that the previous government was profiting on the prices of grain, and therefore with the Estates General they would be able to articulate and equalize taxation.
Based on the ideas of leading French philosophers, such as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau, each class expressed their opposition to the policies of the regime, thus creating a passionate feeling of revolt. Philosophers or philosophes did not stimulate this revolutionary feeling directly; instead revolutionaries used their quotes to express what they felt. For instance the parlement of Rennes affirmed, “That man is born free that originally men are equal, these are truths that have no need to proof.” This statement is clearly an example of what people felt at the moment, of what they wanted after so many years of depression and chaos.
Apart from social and economical issues, a very other important factor to be highlighted is political anarchy. During the reign of Louis XVI, the government was unable to control its own problems due to the fact that it had no consistent foundations. Due to this vulnerability and disorder, the king had no more real power and finally in 1788, he acknowledged the collapse of absolutism.
Due to these social, economical and political difficulties, the revolution finally broke out. After the regime collapse, people started to express more freely, creating the necessary impetus for the revolution to start. It is believed that the French revolution started out because of the pressure exerted by the Paris parlement, but it is possible that the nobility might have given the initial push.
The French Revolution indeed had great influence on some European countries such as Ireland, the Netherlands, Poland and others; but there were other common factors that affected all Europe. One was the rapid growth of population, which was from about 100 million to 200 million people. Another was a great period of depression followed by very prosperous years. The consequences were lack of land resources, unemployment and economical problems. However almost all of the movements taken place around Europe ended in fiasco, but the French Revolution experienced several changes in political, economical and social areas.
Concluding it can be said that the French Revolution was mainly caused by financial problems. However there were several other factors such as social resentment and political anarchy, which also led to the break out of the revolution. Even though philosophes did not have any direct influence, they incited people to express their feelings and to fight for a cause that they believed was important. In order for negative things to change, one has to fight for them, and that was what the French did.
