Three causes of the French revolution were the Enlightenment, the financial crisis, and the social class system that was in place. The Enlightenment was a movement in Europe that was individualistic and not focused on traditional classes or the hierarchy. This led to free thinkers thinking about themselves and how ludicrous the government was. The financial crisis was due to King Louis XIV not being great at bringing in revenue in his attempts to do so. The taxes funding these attempts were paid by the peasants at a rate of around fifty percent while the nobles were exempt from most if not all taxes. This created a backwards robinhood situation that was taking from the poor and giving to the French. The class system in place was made up of three separate categories the third category or the peasants, the second category or the aristocrats, and the first category or the clergy.
The taxation of the peasants is a good example of how unfair this system was while depending upon one another in their system. There was no equality what so ever and it was near impossible to move classes through hard work or anything. This was because moving classes was similar to going against God. This because the common belief was that God had selected which class you were to be a part of and if you were meant to be a peasant then a peasant you should remain. This is why I say the Enlightenment was the most important cause of all of the causes. People were born into this mindset and were content or did not see it possible to make life better than what they had there was no striving for better or anything and if the Enlightenment was not brought into the discussion by philosophers of the time then it may have stayed that way. The Enlightenment threatened the Traditional government and was geared towards the individual thinking for themselves and they wanted a better life. Essentially people woke up and realized how mistreated they were and didn't like it which led to Revolution.