France operated under the Old Regime system prior to the revolution, with an absolute monarch and three estates where social status depended on estate. Enlightenment ideas of equality and democracy spread as the American Revolution inspired people. France's struggling economy and the extravagant spending of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette led to calls for the Estates-General meeting. The Third Estate formed the National Assembly and took the Tennis Court Oath to create a new constitution. Angry citizens then stormed the Bastille prison, sparking the Great Fear across France.