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The causes of the French Revolution: from absolute monarchy to the guillotine
The French Revolution did not break out suddenly. It was the endpoint of a decline lasting decades, in which the absolute monarchy had accumulated enormous debts and protected the privileges of the nobility and clergy, leaving the Third Estate to pay the main taxes. Louis XIV, the Sun King, had embodied this power with the phrase "The State is me", but had handed France a kingdom on the brink of bankruptcy. His successors inherited an exhausted country, and attempts at reform failed one after another: Turgot, Necker and Calonne alternated in power without finding a solution. The American War, won against England, is estimated to have cost a billion livres and further worsened the debt. In 1789, Louis XVI was forced to convene the Estates General, which transformed into a National Assembly. The storming of the Bastille lit the fuse. On 21 January 1793, the king, now simple citizen Louis Capet, climbed onto the guillotine. With him, absolute monarchy ended, and an era of blood and the struggle for freedom began.
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