<P> The causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians . Following the Seven Years ' War and the American Revolution , the French government was deeply in debt . It attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes , which were heavily regressive . Leading up to the Revolution , years of bad harvests worsened by deregulation of the grain industry also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy and the Catholic clergy of the established church . Some historians hold something similar to what Thomas Jefferson proclaimed : that France had `` been awakened by our ( American ) Revolution . '' Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789 . During the first year of the Revolution , members of the Third Estate ( commoners ) took control , the Bastille was attacked in July , the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed in August , and a women 's march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October . A central event of the first stage , in August 1789 , was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime . </P>
<P> The causes of the French Revolution are complex and are still debated among historians . Following the Seven Years ' War and the American Revolution , the French government was deeply in debt . It attempted to restore its financial status through unpopular taxation schemes , which were heavily regressive . Leading up to the Revolution , years of bad harvests worsened by deregulation of the grain industry also inflamed popular resentment of the privileges enjoyed by the aristocracy and the Catholic clergy of the established church . Some historians hold something similar to what Thomas Jefferson proclaimed : that France had `` been awakened by our ( American ) Revolution . '' Demands for change were formulated in terms of Enlightenment ideals and contributed to the convocation of the Estates General in May 1789 . During the first year of the Revolution , members of the Third Estate ( commoners ) took control , the Bastille was attacked in July , the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was passed in August , and a women 's march on Versailles that forced the royal court back to Paris in October . A central event of the first stage , in August 1789 , was the abolition of feudalism and the old rules and privileges left over from the Ancien Régime . </P>
the document that is most closely identified with the french revolution is the -
the document that is most closely identified with the french revolution is the -
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen