How/why/when did the French Revolution begin? And Describe the three stages of The French Revolution

The French
Revolution evolved out of the convocation of the Estates General in 1789. By this point, France
was facing a financial crisis, crippled and overburdened with debt. The Estates General was
convened in order to enact a meaningful solution to this problem, but it proceeded in
deadlock.

The Estates General represented a microcosm of France, drawing
together representatives from each of its three social orders (the Clergy, the Nobility, and the
Third Estate, the last of which essentially comprised everyone not of the first two orders),
drawn from all across France. However, the delegates were in disagreement on how voting should
proceed, with members of the first two estates wishing that each order would vote separate from
one another, while the members of the Third Estate wished for all three orders to vote in a
single body. (Additionally, it should be noted that the Third Estate had twice as many delegates
as either the First or Second Estate.) In this deadlock, the First Estate grew more and more
radicalized, and eventually declared itself the National Assembly, representing the Nation of
France...

The French Revolution was shaped in the drama of 1789. The First
Stage of the Revolution would see the old system of Absolutism abolished, and with it all
remnants of feudal privilege, to be replaced with a political system based in equality before
the law (as expressed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen), and the Absolutist
Monarchy replaced with a Constitutional one.

The key turning point in this
drama, however, came in the summer of 1791, when, concerned with the course of the Revolution
(and his own vulnerability within Paris), King Louis XVI denounced the Revolution and attempted
to flee the country, only to be captured near the border. After this point, that earlier vision
of a Constitutional Monarchy became untenable, and a crisis set in, when the King of France was
perceived as a traitor. This crisis ultimately resolved in the trial and execution of Louis XVI,
with monarchy to be abolished altogether and replaced with a Republic.

The
result was to throw the Revolution into turmoil, however, as France was simultaneously drawn
into war with the monarchies of Europe, while it simultaneously faced counter-revolutionary
revolts within its own territory. Furthermore, the growing radicalism of the Revolution (and the
growing dominance of Paris over Revolutionary politics) resulted in the Federalist Revolts,
where the more moderate (but still pro-Revolution) provincial cities rose in revolt against
Paris. Thus, France was in a political crisis, and what resulted was the emergency government of
the Terror (the bloodiest and most notorious stage of the Revolution).

The
third stage of the Revolution came out of the Thermidorean Reaction, which began after the
National Convention turned on the Committee of Public Safety, executing Robespierre and his
associates, and proceeding to dismantle the Terror. They would create a new Constitution for
France, curtailing much of the radical democratic impulses envisioned in the Constitution of
1793, setting up the Directory. It was in this period that the sans-culottes would have their
power broken, and Napoleon Bonaparte would begin his ascent to political dominance, through his
spectacular success with the army of Italy. The Directory would itself be overthrown in 1799,
with the Brumaire coup d'etat, enshrining the Consulate (with Napoleon taking power as First
Consul).