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
1717 Guatemala earthquake after the Santa Marta earthquakes, the Spanish Crown finally ordered the capital to be moved to a safer location, in the "Valle de la Ermita" (Valley of the Shrine), where Guatemala City, the modern capital of Guatemala, now stands. 1717 Guatemala earthquake The 1717 Guatemala earthquake struck Guatemala on September 29 with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.4, and a Mercalli intensity of approximately IX ("Violent"). The earthquake essentially destroyed much of the architecture of Antigua Guatemala, which was the colonial capital of Central America at the time. Over 3,000 buildings were ruined including many temples and churches. Such was