The Enlightenment was a historical period during the mid-17th century and throughout the 18th century in which intense revolutions occurred in science, philosophy, society, and politics . This part of the story was important because it represented a huge departure from the Middle Ages. Rarely, before or after this period, has the Church had as much power as during the Enlightenment. There were three main eras of the Enlightenment: the Early Enlightenment, the High Enlightenment, and the Late Enlightenment and beyond. Each era had some notable people connected to the movement. There were also other factors that contributed to the Enlightenment. These include rationalism, empiricism, and skepticism. How we see nature and what we know about it as it changes with changes in modern science. “It belongs centrally to the agenda of Enlightenment philosophy to contribute to new knowledge of nature and to provide a metaphysical framework within which to place and interpret this new knowledge.” The Enlightenment ultimately presented an approach to nineteenth-century Romanticism. The Early Enlightenment was the period of Enlightenment from 1685 to 1730. Important contributors to the seventeenth-century Enlightenment included the Englishman Francis Bacon, the Frenchman Renee Descartes, and an important natural philosopher Galileo. Two mechanisms that provided scientific, mathematical, and philosophical tools for the major improvements of the Enlightenment were Isaac Newton's “Principia Mathematica” (1686) and John Locke's “Essay Concerning the Human Understanding” (1689). Technically speaking, there was no single, unified Enlightenment. Rather, a French Enlightenment, a Scottish Enlightenment, and… the center of the paper… Enlightenment thought is generally believed to have been represented by the salons of Paris and Berlin, the practical application of those ideas was carried out further vividly in the American colonies.BibliographyBristow, William, Bristow,. "Lighting". Stanford University. Stanford University, 20 August 2010. Web. 27 October 2013. .SparkNotes. SparkNotes and Web. 27 October 2013. "Home of the Scottish Enlightenment - Scottish Enlightenment." House of the Scottish Enlightenment - Scottish Enlightenment. Np, nd Web. 27 October 2013. "7a. The Impact of the Enlightenment in Europe." The impact of the Enlightenment in Europe [ushistory.org]. Np, nd Web. October 27. 2013. .