Prior to the French Revolution in 1789, France used a wide variety of different units of measurement, which varied from region to region. This made it difficult to trade and communicate effectively.
In order to address this problem, the French Academy of Science was tasked with creating a new system of measurement that would be based on the decimal system and that would be easy to use and understand.
The Academy's work resulted in the creation of the metric system, which was officially adopted in France in 1799. The metric system quickly gained popularity in other countries around the world, and it is now the most widely used system of measurement in the world.