Introduction to the Documents

1775–1815

The revolution that erupted in France in 1789, and would, in time, engulf all of Europe in political upheaval and war, was sparked by a financial crisis that had been brewing for more than a century. Over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the cost of warfare rose dramatically, and France was at war for almost all of that time. Under Louis XIV (1638–1715), France launched one war after another in an effort to cement French dominance in Europe. Louis XV (r. 1715–1774) inherited Louis XIV’s ambitions and spent much of the eighteenth century unsuccessfully battling Britain for a world empire. By 1789 France’s finances had reached the crisis point. With no options left, Louis XVI (r. 1774–1792) gave in to noble pressure to summon the Estates General, the French representative body that had last met in 1614. Louis hoped to use the Estates General as a vehicle for limited financial reform, but events quickly spun out of his control. What had begun as a financial crisis became a far-ranging debate over rights, liberty, and equality, the implications of which would reverberate around the world. While France would return to conservative government, first under Napoleon’s dictatorship and then under a restored monarchy, the French Revolution would remain a potent symbol of the possibility of dramatic social and political change for centuries to come.