The document provides an overview of the Enlightenment, including that it was an intellectual movement where thinkers used reason and science rather than religion to understand the world. It took place from the late 17th century through the 18th century, starting in Britain and spreading to France and the Americas. Before the Enlightenment, most of Europe was ruled by absolute monarchs and religious authorities, while the Enlightenment encouraged changes in government, society, and economic structures and influenced revolutions through the ideas of influential philosophers.