The Enlightenment was an extension of many of the ideas of the renaissance and reformation.
The first element of this is religious. The reformation and the rise of Protestantism broke the stranglehold of the Roman Catholic Church on Europe. Protestantism was inherently anticlerical, arguing for the importance of scripture and personal faith in salvation was exclusively mediated by church ritual and hierarchy.
One major pull factor that contributed to the population growth shown in the urban area of northern Illinois and Indiana was "<span>racial discrimination," since many blacks in the South fled to the North in the hopes of living better lives. </span>
