Primary causes of the French Revolution, checking all that apply:
1. Lack of representation for the lower class
3. Absolute rule of monarchy
4. High taxes on low class
5. High rates of poverty
Prior to the French Revolution, the vast majority of the people (98% of the population), were all considered "the lower class" or "commoners," referred to as the 3rd Estate. (The clergy and nobility were the 1st and 2nd Estates.) So, a "lower class" person could have been a wealthy, bourgeois wine merchant ... or a day laborer in the city ... or a peasant farmer. They paid the taxes that supported the nation, while the clergy and nobility were almost entirely tax exempt. And the bulk of the population lived in poverty as city laborers or rural peasants. Bourgeois merchant-class folks had much more economic advantage, but also were taxed heavily and slighted on political rights. Absolute monarchy blocked them from political power -- and even infringed on the rights of upper class members like the clergy and nobility. So a revolution was brewing.
