What really caused the French Revolution?
Marie Antoinette never actually said 'Let them eat cake.'
The answer
The French Revolution of 1789 was sparked by a perfect storm: crippling national debt from supporting the American Revolution, a rigid feudal class system where the clergy and nobility paid almost no taxes, and a catastrophic crop failure in 1788 that sent bread prices soaring. The famous phrase 'Let them eat cake' was never said by Marie Antoinette - it was attributed to an unnamed princess by Rousseau years before Marie Antoinette even arrived in France.
Source: Britannica
- France
- revolution
- class system
- myths
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