The 1500s was a time of great prosperity. Trade began to pick up again as most of those people who had lived through the worst times of the Great Plague had already passed away from old age. The new generations had come a long way in preventing diseases, and the late 1400s and early 1500s saw stability reign across much of the world. In many nations, not only in Europe, there came to be seen a break from the recent past, and a yearning for the ancient past. This yearning was expressed most directly in a bevy of Greek- and Roman-inspired edifices that became more ubiquitous over time. Even the Asian countries showed an interest in this style, and mixed it with their own to produce many new forms. Often, the ornate rooves of Asian building styles were mixed with ornate columns, walls, and ot