<human>:  What were the causes of the French Revolution?
<bot>: The main causes of the French Revolution were the widespread discontent of the common people of France with the aristocracy and the peasantry’s overwhelming burden of heavy taxes, the failure of King Louis XVI to deal with the problems of the nation, and the rising influence of the Enlightenment and revolutionary ideas among the educated classes. Other contributing factors were resentment of the privileges of the clergy and nobility and the spread of new ideas and values through the writings of the philosophes of the Enlightenment.