The earthquake that traumatized Europe 1755

1. November 1,
1755
Lisbon,
Portugal
THE QUAKE THAT SHOOK
EUROPE
AHaller

2.  Lisbon a city of 200,000 center of the Portuguese Empire was
suddenly ruins. The city struck by a massive earthquake
estimated at 8.7 on the Richter scale—more powerful than the
1906 San Francisco
 On All Saints’ Day 1755, tremors from an earthquake
measuring perhaps 9.0 (or higher) on the moment magnitude
scale swept furiously from their origin. Directly in their path
was Lisbon, then one of the wealthiest cities in the world.
Portugal had a vast global empire. Within minutes, much of
the city lay in ruins.
 A half hour later, a giant tsunami unleashed by the quake
smashed into Portugal’s coastline and barreled up the Tagus
River. Thousands were swept out to sea. By day’s end, the
great wave chain would claim victims on four separate
continents.
CONSEQUENCES OF EARTHQUAKE

3.  Afterwards a firestorm then engulfed the city’s shattered
remains. Survivors experience intense heat. The city burned
for several weeks, killing thousands. An earthquake, then
tsunami then fire proved devastating.
 In some areas of the city fires raged for six days. Europe’s 4 th
largest city lay in ruins. Sixty thousand people perished and
85 per cent of Lisbon’s buildings, plus an unimaginable
wealth of cultural treasures, had been destroyed by quake,
fire, or water.
 The earthquake had a searing impact on the European psyche,
and for Portugal itself, despite an ambitious program of
reconstruction—which gave birth to the modern science of
seismology—the quake ushered in a period of decline.

4. The scale of was staggering equal to the force of 32,000
Hiroshima bombs dispersed across 5.8 million square miles (3
percent of the Earth’s surface). It happened early on Nov. 1,
1755, All Saints Day. The effects were felt as far away as
Finland, but it was Lisbon that most famously bore the brunt of
one of the most powerful earthquakes in history.
 The quake was only the beginning of Lisbon’s travails.
 A tsunami, triggered by the seismic event, carried thousands
out to sea
 A devastating firestorm, fueled by vast reserves of debris,
burned for days, killing thousands of the maimed and
wounded who survived the quake, only to be consumed by
flames and smoke.

5. Decline - Age of Faith
 Did the earthquake
have a Divine cause?
 Was this a sign God
was angry with the
most devoted Catholic
state in Europe
 Was it a sign He did not
care
Rise - Age of Reason
 Was there absence of
any supernatural
causes – did it rudely
shake European
thought to the core?
 Was the cause due
purely to natural
causes or to an
impersonal randomness
of nature?
EUROPEAN ENLIGHTENMENT
ENCOURAGED