ABSTRACT
The fluctuating economic activity in the 1770s and 1780s had not made most peasants poorer and had not prevented the bourgeoisie from increasing its wealth. The need for change was caused mainly by the financial difficulties King Louis XVI’s government faced as a result of France’s involvement in foreign wars such as the War of Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the Seven Years’ War (1754–1763) and the American War of Independence (1775–1783). The Bourbon dynasty, which ruled France at the time of the revolution, was one of the most ancient European royal houses. In the course of the eighteenth century the Bourbons relied on the reflected glory of the Sun-King, yet for all the ostentatious display of power during the reign of his grandson, Louis XV, France could no longer halt the decline of its super-power status, as demonstrated in the series of military and diplomatic defeats.
