French Revoltion What caused the French Revolution to start as and when it did and Could its outbreak have been advoided, or possibly postponed? Was...

The counter
example to the French Revolution was the Glorious Revolution in England a century earlier.
 England, having moved away from absolute monarchy, had evolved to be governed by the Rule of
Law -- that every Englishman (and woman) had certain Rights, and that no one, even the monarch,
was above the law.  The factors that brought this situation to fruition are a bit involved, but
nothing like that kind of evolution occurred in France. Having remained Catholic (with its
institutional hierarchy) and absolutist, there came a time when Revolution was unavoidable.
 Certainly if more "English" influences in government had been realized in France,
then the French Revolution might have been avoided, but by the late 1780's it was too late.
 "Those who make peaceful evolution impossible make violent revolution
inevitable."