Sep. 19, 2005 - The time of change

Ama lived on Earth on the crossroads between the 16^th and 17^th century.  She was born in Macao, a Portuguese settlement in China.  

The 16^th and 17^th Century events passed through the world shaking the roots of past beliefs and leaving a path for the generations to come to follow.  These centuries saw changes in knowledge, culture, religion concepts and built a basis for the new world, as we know it today. 

This was the time of discovery of new countries and continents.  The explorations gained momentum in the 15^th century and transformed the European map of the world.  Carving out a Christian kingdom, Portuguese went to Africa to continue its line of exploration with the final goal ? to reach the source of the spice trade ? India.  One of the Portuguese ships went off course and touched the shore of what is today known as Brazil.  Christopher Columbus gained patronage for his plans to reach India using westerly route and he travelled across Atlantic to reach America.  New continents, China, India and America became a part of Europe?s politics and life.  People were discovering new tastes, new sensations, new thoughts.  Spices and coffee entered the streets of London and Paris and first slab of chocolate was on sale in Spain.  Potato and tobacco were brought from America and the ritual of drinking tea was discovered.  This was the time when silk and colourful clothing and Chinese porcelain entered Europeans? courts.  Completely new colours and fashion brought from Asia influenced the minds of European artists and designers.

This was the time of reawakening of art, the time of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael, the time of re-appearing of naked sculptures and paintings of nudes in churches, the time of Shakespeare and his theatre masterpieces.

The 16^th and 17^th century for Europe was the beginning of the new age - Age of Reason, the time of opening Universities all over England, Spain and France.  This was the time of the first press that flourished a new communication channel amongst the educated classes.  Thousands of articles were not any more just manuscripts, exclusively passed from one philosopher to the other, they were printed and published and for the first time distributed amongst many who were thirsty for knowledge.  The art of printing fairly quickly spread through Europe, ensuring that a whole range of texts were published. 

This was the time of discovery of the telescope and first precise stars movement observations, the time when astronomers were trying to challenge the precise formulas that proved that the Earth is the centre of the Universe as claimed in Bible.