From Hillary Shaw, Newport, Shropshire, UK
While volcanic activity and related crop decline may have been a factor, multiple causes led to the French revolution, such as the high-spending habits of the French aristocracy and the cost of France’s support for the American revolutionary war of 1775-83. This itself was the culmination of several years of repressive British taxation of American colonists. Perhaps if Britain had been more conciliatory to the Americans, France might have peacefully liberalised, with no revolution(6 September, p 11).
