hi drwhofan
Wikipedia is a good jumping off point for most subjects:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution
Many factors contributed to the French Revolution but perhaps most notably it was as a consequence of the pressure over many years because the Monarchy (Ancien R�gime) built up an unmanageable debt maintaining their lavish lifestyles whilst failing to deliver a basic standard of living for their people. Summed up in the quote erroneously attributed to marie antoinette: "They have no bread, well let them eat cake".