1789 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION
ILLUSTRATION: EDWARD CROOKS/WWW.EDWARDCROOKS.CO.UK
France’s economy was in ruins. Extravagant spending by King Louis XVI and the American Revolutionary War led to rising prices and poverty. To make matters worse, several years of poor harvests and drought resulted in catastrophic food shortages, with a loaf of bread costing almost as much as a day’s wages. When a universal land tax was proposed, from which the more privileged classes would not be exempt, the aristocracy were outraged.