French Revolution

The French Revolution was caused by economic difficulties, despite France being one of the richest and most powerful nations in Europe at the time. Louis XVI was king at this point, and he decided that it would be best for France to divide the people into classes, known as the Estates-General. In 1789, France was an absolute monarchy. The taxation in France was unfair in every way. The peasants, whose income was substantially lower than those of higher classes, were required to pay an immense amount of more taxes than anyone above them.

Aside from the economic issues and classification, the Enlightenment ideas were a large contribution to the start of the French Revolution. These new ideas affected the various classes in different ways. Some saw it as a cover for the self-interest of the bourgeosie.

To prevent the French Revolution, France could have chosen better leaders and they could have not diminished the worth of certain people, just to create a sense of order, when it really only created conflict. In my opinion, though, preventing the French Revolution would have been a bad decision. Despite all of the misfortunes during the Revolution, the progress of the country was vast.