The Enlightenment was a time period when certain people began to question absolute monarchy and where reason and scientific methods were applied to all aspects of life during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment thinkers called philosophes were intellectuals who popularized the ideas of the Enlightenment. The American Revolution (1775-1783) and the French Revolution (1789-1815) were direct causes of the Enlightenment. The ideas of John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Montesquieu all played important roles in the revolutions. Locke's idea of natural rights and publication of the Two Treatises of Government, Rousseau's influence on his followers and Montesquieu's idea of separation of power all influenced the revolutions because they
