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
1908 Messina earthquake Prisoners who had escaped death when the prison fell began looting property and even robbing corpses of their jewellery. In Reggio an estimated 1,800 convicts died when the prison was destroyed. Peasants from nearby rural villages joined the looters. Troops were soon sent to the city and martial law was declared by General Feira Di Cossatto. Rescuers searched through the ruins for weeks, and whole families were still being pulled out alive days following the earthquake but thousands remained buried there. Buildings in the area had not been constructed for earthquake resistance, having been built out of small stones and