France was heavily indebted for financially supporting the American Revolution, as it would weaken France’s European rival, Great Britain, because of the wars waged by Louis XIV and spending of royal family. 3. Increasingly huge deficit, the French government was nearly bankrupt. 4. Heavy tax burden on the French peasants (= 90 % of the population).
However, wars generally led to very expensive costs to the country. Henry's father, Henry VII, left the country in quite a stable state economically, but Henry devoted most of England's money into his campaigns to take over France, because he believed had a right to the Throne. To some extent source 4 supports the idea that the foreign policy did fail due to the lack of resources, because it states that “the young warrior family accepted the fact that royal finances could not support a repetition of the campaign of 1513”. This quote implies that the lack of resources seems to be the dominant reason for stopping Henry from invading France and therefore source 4 supports the statement to some extent. In source 4 we also learn that much must have depended on diplomatic relations with Maximilian and Ferdinand, however Henry’s allies proved unfaithful and unreliable.
The economic problems created by the French kings also contributed to the Revolution. During the 18th century, the French government spent more money than it collected in taxes. By 1788, the country was bankrupt. The amount of tax each person must pay is unfair. Landholders found in the nobility weren't taxed much.
The French Revolution unfolded in the late 1780s and what started as a disagreement over proposed tax reforms would quickly evolve into a movement for political reform. The revolution was fueled by greedy royals, extravagant aristocrats, food shortages, rising taxes and prices, impoverished peasants, corruption and violence. The nobility wanted sovereignty and a share of royal power; the wealthy middle-class wanted political representation; the urban working classes wanted more food at lower prices; the peasants wanted relief from feudal bonds and restrictions. The king, Louis XVI, sat center of this quandary of competing interests unsure of what to do and what he wanted. “The people under the Old Regime” political cartoon (1815) gives a graphic representation of the Third Estate under the old regime during a time of uncertainty, change and chaos of the revolution.
With King Louis XVI leading France as an absolute monarch, people were struggling to cope with rising taxes on one if their daily supplements, grain. This was because of the huge dept France was in from their wars they had been fighting. And with enlightenment thinkers people were thinking differently and wanted change. The 3rd estate had been tormented for a long time, paying all the taxes, and having no power caused a huge struggle among all of them. But when the Revolution started to take place, there was a sudden, dramatic change.
The British could stay there because the United States didn't have an army because the government didn't have any money. Even though these outpost were in direct violation with the treaty of Paris the British kind of said what are you going to do about it and then just stayed. Because of the economic instability states began to go through a period of mass inflation and debt. Because of this the debt of individuals increased causing events like Shay's rebellion. In which a group of farmers led a armed assault on the national government and because there was no army so a local militia had to stop this rebellion.
In turn this would destroy Britain commercially and their industrial economy allowing Napoleon to take over Britain however did not work and left Napoleon worse off then he was before. His next mistake was the Peninsular war and as a result weakened his empire even more by the Spanish guerrillas, Germans, and Italians turning against him. Lastly his third mistake lost him most of his soldiers and the tactic used to defeat him was the scorched-earth policy, by the Russians. These mistakes greatly weakened Napoleons Empire. The empire was then declared war on by Britain, Russia, Prussia, Sweden, and Austria.
An unmanageable national debt, both caused by and exacerbating the burden of a grossly inequitable system of taxation. Food scarcity in the years immediately before the revolution. Absolutism and privilege France in 1789 was, at least in theory, an absolute monarchy, an increasingly unpopular form of government at the time. In practice, the king's ability to act on his theoretically absolute power was hemmed in by the (equally resented) power and prerogatives of the nobility and the clergy, the remnants of feudalism. Similarly, the peasants covetously eyed the relatively greater prerogatives of the townspeople.
After loaning money to the Continental Congress, especially France, America became profoundly in debt. Those that had loaned money to Continental Congress suffered from the excessive inflation America had during the war, this caused the loans to be worthless. Federalist and other members of the first Constitutional Convention were changed after the American Revolution; the change then reorganized the organization of power to be put into the hands of the federal government in place of having states being able to manage their own taxes and laws. Severe economic troubles produced radical economic and political movements, such as Shays’ Rebellion. The monetary schemes of the states brought floods of paper money, which some of the states,
First, the War of Austrian Succession 1740 to 1748, then Seven Years War which lasted from 1756 to 1763 and caused France to lose huge amounts of overseas territory due to its defeat. It also intervened in the American War of Independence from 1778 to 1783 which cost approximately 1066 million livres. Most of the cost for War was supported through the loans Necker raised, which gave the lenders lack of confidence due to lack of elected parliament to guarantee the loans. Another reason for France’s financial problems was the tax system in France. The tax farming system was ineffective and chaotic - Farmers-General paid the State an agreed sum and kept for themselves any extra amount.