The French Revolution was a major event in French history. It’s known as perhaps one of the most violent revolutions, with over 100,000 people losing their lives. The Revolution lasted for an entire decade, and introduced one of the greatest historical figures of all time: Napoleon Bonaparte.

There are many factors that went into the start of the French Revolution. The primary cause I would say is King Louis’ (The French King at the time) treatment of the third and final estate. France, up until this point was split into three sections, determined essentially by social class. The first estate were full of people that worked with religion: hence being called the clergy. The second estate were the nobles: important people in France that were usually related to the King in some way. The third and final estate were the commoners; people that didn’t really have a designated role to play in French society. The commoners took up most of the population in France, and were tasked with paying all taxes in the country. When France eventually went into debt, King Louis’ primary solution was to tax the commoners even more. This continual targeting lead to the third estate rebelling after they were denied extra votes in the meeting of the Estates Generals.

Another factor that played a key part in this was the drought that consumed 1789. This was what originally provoked most of the commoners, with them not being able to harvest enough crops to pay back on taxes. The culmination of all these factors eventually lead to one of if not the most important event in all of French history.