What was the Enlightenment, and how did it change they way people viewed government? Write your answer in complete sentences.

The Enlightenment was a seventeenth- and eighteenth-century intellectual movement that aimed to better society via fact-based reasoning and investigation. The Enlightenment introduced secular ideas to Europe, changing people's perceptions of problems like liberty, equality, and individual rights. Today, such ideas are the bedrock of the world's most powerful democracies.

Step-by-step explanation:

two ideas that emerged from the Enlightenment:

Intellectuals like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke introduced the idea that no monarch should have absolute authority. Both claimed that leaders' authority came from the people, not from God. And, according to Locke, if people disagreed with their leader, they had the right to have their government replaced with one that honored their rights.

Pre-Enlightenment Equality Powerful individuals known as the nobility had exclusive privileges to buy land, avoid taxes, and hold privileged jobs across Europe, while the lowest elements of society battled to make ends meet. The Enlightenment questioned this system, with intellectuals such as John Locke arguing that all men are created equal and that no one should be born with more power than another.