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 city of Concepción were destroyed. The records indicate that the earthquake was so intense that "the residents could not remain standing." The earthquake was felt in the rest of the Chilean Central Valley, but with less intensity. One of the most affected cities near Concepción was Chillán, where the entire city was destroyed and the river changed its course, ending up nearly 15 blocks from its original location. In Santiago, the tower of the cathedral was destroyed by the tremor, although no other major damage was reported in the rest of the city. Between 1:05 and 1:45, the sea receded