The origins of the French Revolution are multiple, social, economic and political. The events of 1789 were in fact a conjunction of several conjunctural factors, linked to the period, and structural, anchored more deeply in society.
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There is, in the years preceding the Revolutiona climate social tension as well as a growing mistrust of the people with regard to the absolute monarchy of divine right. In the Age of Enlightenment, this society of orders was considered archaic, responsible for extreme poverty in the Third Estate (98% of the population) and significant episodes of famine. Associated with winters very harsh weather, poor harvests and a sharp rise in the price of bread between 1787 and 1789 (+75%), the food crisis led to riots in the French countryside.
The Third Estate takes control
Despite a very indebted kingdom of France in 1789, it was out of the question for the people to pay new taxes. Faced with popular discontent and an economic situation at the edge of the chasm, Louis XVI convenes the Estates General for the 1er May 1789. The Third Estate wasted no time in challenging the monarchical power by declaring itself the Constituent National Assembly amid great popular fervor. The royal measures to counter this resistance will therefore lead to the spark of the French Revolution, with the storming of the Bastille on 14 July.
To know
The constituent assembly decreed by the Third Estate took an oath, on June 20, 1789, not to separate before having given a constitution to France. It is the famous Oath of the Tennis Courtfrom the name of the room where the Assembly held its deliberations.
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