Several factors influenced the climate in which the French Revolution occurred, including social inequality, economic hardship, and Enlightenment ideas. The rigid class structure of the Old Regime, with the privileged nobility and clergy benefiting at the expense of the Third Estate (commoners), created significant discontent. Additionally, years of poor harvests and the financial strain of wars, including participation in the American Revolution, led to increased taxes and food shortages. Enlightenment thinkers, such as Rousseau and Voltaire, inspired revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity. These combined factors generated a revolutionary fervor that eventually erupted into the radical societal changes of the French Revolution in 1789.