Economic and political causes led to the emergence of the democratic nation states, first in English and then in France and other countries of modern Europe. The important economic cause was the Industrial Revolution which transformed industry, commerce and agriculture and created a new growing class of factory workers, small agricultural farmers, petty shopkeepers and the like.
As the masses of people, the classes acquired wealth and education; they demanded new and more political rights and privileges. This led to the conflict between the absolute king and the people.
In England, this conflict took the form of a constitutional struggle between the absolutist Stuart Kings and their Parliaments who championed the cause of the people. But in France it took the form of violent political struggle, the French Revolution of 1789, which ended in the overthrow of the absolutist monarchy in France.