At the beginning of the eighteenth century, France was a monarchy ruled by an autocratic king. The French society was divided into three Estates, or classes.
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The First Estate consisted of the clergy.
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The Second Estate consisted of the nobility. The Third Estate consisted of the peasants and the bourgeoisie, which included professionals and the wealthy merchants.
The First and Second Estates enjoyed many privileges, and paid almost no taxes. Wealth was concentrated in their hands. The Third Estate had no privileges. This Estate bore the burden of taxation.
The peasants had to perform unpaid compulsory services. Tax default was punished with imprisonment in the state prison called the Bastille, which became a symbol of oppression.
Inspired by the democratic ideas of French philosophers like Rousseau, Voltaire and Montesquieu, the bourgeoisie demanded political rights and government by the consent of the people.
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Estates-General France had an assembly called the Estates-General, meant to represent all the three Estates. The Estates-General, however, was never summoned between 1614 and 1789.