Cult: Enlightenment ideas (liberty, equality, free trade, religious tolerance, and natural rights). We can see this in the abolition movement and various independence movements. These wars were a consequence of the ideas that developed during the period known as the Enlightenment. The period of the Enlightenment began in the 18th century thanks to the work of political philosophers such as Locke, Rousseau, Voltaire, Montesquieu, Smith and Hume. These philosophers developed a new idea of the state, and its connection with the people. They argued that the state had the responsibility of responding to the needs of citizens.