The French Revolution, which occurred in 1789, is the event that, according to some authors, inaugurates the so-called Contemporary Age. The historians of the 19th century, who made the dividing line of History, attributed to this event the character of a dividing line between the Modern and Contemporary Age, due to the political radicalization that characterized it. 

To understand the French Revolution, it is necessary to know a little about the economic and the social situation of France in the 18th century. Until the 18th century, France was a state in which the model of monarchical absolutism was kept in check. The then French king, Louis XVI, personified the state, bringing together the legislative, executive and judicial powers in his person. 

The French then were not citizens of a Democratic Constitutional State, as is common today throughout the Western world, they were subjects of the king. The king personified the state. Within the framework of the Absolutist State, there were three different states in which the population fit: the first state was represented by the bishops of the High Clergy; the second state had as representatives the nobility or the French aristocracy - which performed military functions (sword nobility) or legal functions (toga nobility); the third state, in turn, was represented by the bourgeoisie, which was divided between members of the Lower Clergy, merchants, bankers, businessmen, urban workers, and the peasants, (sans culotte) totalling almost all of the population.

The French Revolution was due to the situation in France in 1787, after the financial collapse the previous year. The country accumulated a large debt and its income was not sufficient to pay the Court's interest and costs. 

To raise more funds for the payment of debts, Louis XVI sought to impose a new tax on the property of notables - nobility and clergy -, which was rejected by the Assembly of Notables, and caused the king to call the Assembly of States General in 1789, an institution that had not been reunited since 1614.

After disagreement on the voting system, between the traditional vote in which each class would be entitled to one vote without taking into account the number of deputies and the vote "head by head", the Third State, the defender of the last model, proclaimed itself in National Assembly. 

Fearful of the implications of the increase in the power of the Third State in the face of the two other classes, Louis XVI intervened, preventing meetings, and holding a royal session in which he announced the reforms he intended to enact and the maintenance of class separation with sessions in separate rooms. 

In the face of disobedience by the First and Third States, the General Assembly becomes the National Constituent Assembly, invoking the right to propose the reforms as it wishes. Such an example spreads throughout France, generating anarchy. 

The monarchy then decided to dissolve the Assembly, and the people, feeling threatened. The causes of the french revolution are remote to immediate. Among those in the first group, one must consider that France was going through a period of the financial crisis. 

The strongest cause of the revolution was the economic one, since social causes, as usual, cannot be heard by themselves. During the economic chaos and general discontent, the revolution rises.