Throughout history there have been many influential people, events, and eras that have contributed greatly to the society we know today. Many of which have contributed to the cultural, industrial or territorial disputes that establish our borders. Unlike the previous years of war around the world that set these boundaries, the Age of Enlightenment brought a completely new perspective to the way the world thought and how they viewed individual societies, the world and their governments . The Age of Enlightenment, so called because of the numerous thinkers who followed during the era and the widespread ideals, paved the way for the achievements that were achieved in the years to come. In this era people began to think for themselves and stopped relying on their rulers to make the decisions needed to help their countries; people began to question why they had no say in their government (individualism), they began to understand that they themselves needed to be treated equally with each other (humanism), and they also began to believe in the divine beings they began to worship, who lead to the concept of Protestantism and religious tolerance. Although the Enlightenment had a major impact on the development of rational thought and many scientific and religious ideals, without the works of two great philosophers, Isaac Newton and John Locke, the Enlightenment period would have had difficulty getting off the ground. More specifically, Isaac Newton's "Principa Mathematica" and John Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" enriched the Enlightenment period with the necessary philosophical, mathematical, and scientific insights needed to achieve the major achievements of that period, and ar..... In the midst of paper and corporations, the church had to begin to see the world in a new light and begin to practice religious tolerance. Locke and Voltaire were firm supporters of religious tolerance, Voltaire even went so far as to say that "the Jew, the Mohammedan and the Christian deal together, as if they all professed the same religion, and do not call the name of infidel to anyone except bankrupts (Kramnick)” when he saw peace at the Royal Exchange in London. With this image in mind for his country, Thomas Jefferson himself quoted: “The lawful powers of government extend only to those acts which are injurious to others. But it doesn't do me any harm if my neighbor says there are twenty gods, or no God. He doesn't pick my pocket or break my leg” (Kramnick). This showed that religious tolerance was beginning to spread because of his people idealists and the profound knowledge they shared.