Which major historical period did the Scientific Revolution initiate?

The correct answer is that the Scientific Revolution initiated the Enlightenment. During the Scientific Revolution, which took place from the 16th to the 18th centuries, there was a profound transformation in how people understood the natural world. Thinkers such as Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton challenged traditional views and emphasized observation, experimentation, and reasoning as methods of acquiring knowledge.

This emphasis on reason and empirical evidence laid the groundwork for the Enlightenment, an intellectual movement that flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Enlightenment thinkers, inspired by the successes of scientific inquiry, applied similar reasoning to politics, philosophy, and human rights. They advocated for ideas like democracy, individual liberty, and the separation of powers, which shaped modern Western thought.

The other historical periods mentioned do not directly follow from the Scientific Revolution in the same way. The Middle Ages refer to a much earlier time, characterized by feudalism and the dominance of the Church, which was eventually challenged by the scientific advancements of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. The Renaissance preceded the Scientific Revolution, sparking interest in science and the arts but not initiating the Enlightenment. The Progressive Era is a 19th and early 20th-century movement