An immediate cause would be starvation, the people did not have food to feed themselves due to poor harvests and rising produce costs and were dying off quickly. Economic causes would be the taxes that the monarch at the time instated to pay for the war amongst other things, the general public did not have enough for food let alone taxes. Social inequality of the Estates system contributed to growing tensions, as well as the rise of the bourgeoisie. Political causes would be poor leadership and disdain for the monarchy. intellectual causes would be enlightenment ideas and a societal shift in values of logic and reason. rather than authority and the church.