The Enlightenment was a period in world history that roughly corresponds with the eighteenth century, originating in the nations of Britain, France, and the German-speaking kingdoms and then spreading to the rest of Europe and the European colonies. It was a period when philosophers such as Rousseau, Voltaire, and Locke advocated ideas of political freedom, which ultimately influenced movement toward more democratic and republican governments in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Although the Enlightenment is known today more for the political ideas that came from it, there were also major changes in economic theories and practices that took place within the milieu of the Enlightenment.