“The French Revolution was caused by financial and economic challenges”. To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Candidates are required to consider the merits or otherwise of the argument that it was financial and economic problems that caused the French Revolution. Candidates may examine the role of financial and economic factors in the outbreak of the Revolution together or separately. They may examine the role of these factors in the short, medium or long term. They should also consider the role of other factors such as the social disparity of the Ancien Régime, the impact of Enlightenment ideas and the errors of Louis XVI especially in the period from 1789. They may argue that the various factors were interrelated. Candidates may choose to define the Revolution as the storming of the Bastille on 14 July 1789 or they may focus more broadly on the range of events from the fall of the Bastille to the execution of Louis XVI in January 1793.