French Revolution Summary There were 4 main problems which led to the French Revolution. First, money was big problem before the Revolution because France was going bankrupt due to a huge national debt. Secondly, there were three bad harvests, the 3rd estate wasn’t able to pay taxes, and there wasn’t enough food for everyone. The 3rd estate was literally starving to death. Third, the king tried to call an Estates General to get help from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd estates to solve the debt problem, but the goals were impossible to reach and the 3rd estate was left out. Fourth, the 3rd estate recognized that they would have no power in the Estates General, so they created a national assembly which ended up giving them more power than the King couldn’t take away. . The national debt was one of the main causes of the French Revolution. They country was in a lot of debt because of all the foreign wars, invasions, and colonization. For example, the American Revolution, the French-Indian War, wars with Spain, and colonization of South America and Africa all took place overseas and cost a lot of money. Also, a lot of the French nobles fled the country, but the king was still giving them money when they were living in other courts of European monarchs. The French King agreed to do this because …show more content…
The 3rd Estate split away from the Estates General because their goals were being ignored. They wanted to form their own representative government. They went to the King’s Tennis Court and pledged an oath to stay until the King met their demand. They demanded an equal voice and a constitution that gave them power over their taxes, and property. The King was afraid of a National Assembly that only had 3rd estate members, so he forced the 1st and 2nd estate members to join the National Assembly. For the first time in French history, the peasants had a voice and some