1755 Lisbon earthquake a benevolent deity. The Lisbon disaster provided a counterexample. As Theodor Adorno wrote, "[t]he earthquake of Lisbon sufficed to cure Voltaire of the theodicy of Leibniz" ("Negative Dialectics" 361). In the later twentieth century, the 1755 earthquake has sometimes been compared to the Holocaust as a catastrophe that transformed European culture and philosophy. Jean-Jacques Rousseau was also influenced by the devastation following the earthquake, whose severity he believed was due to too many people living within the close quarters of the city. Rousseau used the earthquake as an argument against cities as part of his desire for a more naturalistic
1751 Concepción earthquake 1751 Concepción earthquake The 1751 Concepción earthquake was one of the strongest and most destructive recorded quakes in Chilean history. It struck the Central Valley of the country, destroying the cities of Concepción, Chillán, Cauquenes, Curicó and Talca, probably on May 24, 1751, although there is currently a debate among scholars as to the exact date of the earthquake (see also "Other dates"). The city of Concepción had already been hit by several earthquakes. On this occasion the city was still in the process of recovering from the earthquake and tsunami that completely destroyed the city in 1730. Hours before