French Revolution

Uprising of the people against the oppre ion of despotic absolutism. The causes were the prevalent distre , the exemption of the privileged cla es, the flagrant abuses of administration, the corruption of the court, the new doctrines of the Encyclopedists, and the example of the American Republic. Louis XIV. left a debt of 3,500,000,000 livres, an exhausted country, an intolerable system of taxation. and a demoralized civil service. Louis XV. made ineffectual IMG:content-0166.jpg:[graphic] IMG:content-0167.jpg:[graphic][merged small] it has been several times taken by the Dutch and English, and is now a convict station. The capital is Cayenne, founded 1634. Area 46,840 sq. m.; pop., 1890, 25,796.