The Enlightenment bought views that made people question events. The Enlightenment told people a ruler should show why he should rule. So, the people of France started analyzing their own ruler and government. Many important thinkers of the Enlightenment were French. They included Voltaire, Montesquieu and Rousseau. They attacked the French government and French society. They believed men were born equal and should have equal rights. People had the rights to rule their own country, the right to overthrow an unjust government. These ideas spread quickly among the middle classes. The government was inefficient, unjust and corrupt, and now people wanted a change.
The government was beyond unjust in France. In France at that time there was no social mobility. France was a feudal country with class division. People were divided into three classes. The First class consisted of the clergy. The Second class consisted of the nobility. The Third class included the bourgeoisie, the city workers and the peasants. The class to which a person belonged decided a person's power and rights. The First and Second class were the privileged class. The clergy and nobility were exempt from many taxes, they had to pay about four-fifths their income in tax. The Third class was the most discontented. The bourgeoisie were all uneducated. They had to pay all taxes. For the poorest people in France they had paid give up the most money. .
Despite the fact that the king took all the Third classes" money France still had financial difficulties. During the 18th century, the French government spent more money than it collected in taxes. By 1788, the country was bankrupt. Most of the money was kept on wars. France had been at war for nearly fifty years out of the pervious one hundred years. France supported the Americans in the American War of Independence. After the war France was in financial ruin. The king living lavish while the country was suffering also spent large sums of money.
They dramatically revised their miliary way of thinking after the revolution, which was later displayed in their future battles against neighboring France. ... The revolution also affected Holland, inspiring the Netherlands to stage a revoltuion of their own. ...
