The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and Tsunami was the result of a catastrophic earthquake which occurred southwest of the Algarve in the Atlantic Ocean on the 1st of November 1755. The impact of the earthquake was felt in Portugal, Spain and Morocco, but it is forever associated with Lisbon owing to the level of devastation it inflicted on the city. It was badly struck by the earthquake that morning, but then the initial damage was compounded when the city was also hit by a tsunami forty minutes later caused by the impact of the earthquake out to sea in the Atlantic Ocean. Two more tsunami waves followed. Then the damage was completed by the outbreak of a major fire across the city. By the time it burned out hours later over 80% of the city’s buildings had been largely destroyed, while estimates of the death toll vary from 12,000 up to as much as 40,000 people out a population of between 200,000 and 250,000 inhabitants. Lisbon’s growth as a major European capital, which had been considerable in the first half of the eighteenth century, was severely hindered following the disaster and many people migrated to others parts of Portugal and to its major colony of Brazil.[1]
The 1755 Lisbon earthquake chronology of events
Lisbon had been hit by two sizeable earthquakes in the late medieval and early modern periods, the first in 1321 and the other in 1531. But these were eclipsed by the earthquake which occurred on the morning of the 1st of November 1755, a holy day in Portugal as it was the Feast of All Saints. The epicenter of the earthquake was in the Atlantic Ocean around 200 kilometers southwest of Cape Saint Vincent in the south-western corner of Portugal. It had a magnitude of at least 7.7, though possibly as high as 8.5, making it one of the most violent earthquakes ever to strike the continent and also inflicted major damage on Morocco where an estimated 10,000 people died.[2]
The worst of the damage caused by the earthquake occurred in the Portuguese capital. The initial impact went on for upwards of six minutes and was so intense that it opened fissures up to five meters wide in parts of the city. Had the impact ended there, things might not have been too bad, but forty minutes later the first of three tsunami waves crashed into the city from the Atlantic Ocean, having been formed by the earthquake’s impact out at sea. Then the fires started, fueled by how many candles had been lit across the city to honor All Saints’ Day in an intensely religious country like Roman Catholic Portugal. Between the combined effects of the earthquake, the tsunami waves and the firestorm over 80% of the city was destroyed. The death toll remains a matter of conjecture. Some place it as low as 12,000 people, others argue that as many as 40,000 lost their lives, representing upwards of 20% of the city’s population.[1]
Beyond the physical destruction which it wrought, the earthquake and tsunami and the devastation of Lisbon had a profound impact on the psyche of Europeans in the midst of the Enlightenment. The latter intellectual movement was already leading people to question their religious beliefs and in the aftermath of the disaster figures such as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau used it as an example of the indifference of any supposed god to human suffering. Voltaire subsequently published Candide, ou l’Optimisme in 1759, in which he attacked the notion that “all is for the best” in the “best of all possible worlds.” An earthquake features prominently in the book's narrative.[3]
Migration following the earthquake and tsunami
While perhaps tens of thousands of Lisboans lost their lives in the earthquake and subsequent events, which can be referenced in the increase of death certificates issued after the tsunami, a great many more survived but lost their homes and were left destitute. Inevitably, some of these decided to leave the Lisbon region altogether, some drifting north towards cities like Oporto and some south to the Algarve. Yet the earthquake had also inflicted severe damage on other coastal regions of Portugal and the most attractive destination for the migrants from Lisbon was to head overseas to Brazil, a Portuguese colony which had been developing swiftly in the first half of the eighteenth century on the back of a major gold rush there. Conversely, Portugal is estimated to have suffered a 32% to 48% drop in GDP in the years following the earthquake as a result of the disaster.[4] While the lack of census records for Portugal or Brazil from this time, as well as the destruction of church records for baptisms and marriages in Lisbon itself owing to the destruction of every single church in the city in 1755, limits our ability to fully assess how many people migrated as a result of the catastrophe, it is reasonable to assume that tens of thousands of people moved in the aftermath of it.
Demographic impact of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake
The demographic impact of the earthquake and tsunami was felt in various parts of Portugal and overseas in Brazil. There was an influx of thousands of people into towns and cities like Oporto and Braga in Portugal itself. The greater influx, though, was to Brazil, although it is hard to disentangle whether this was the result of the destruction of Lisbon in 1755 or other pull-factors such as the gold rush which Brazil was experiencing in the eighteenth century. What is clear is that some 400,000 people arrived to Brazil in the course of the eighteenth century, with the population there growing to over two million people by 1800. While many of these came as a result of other developments, some of this growth can be attributed to migration caused by the great earthquake of 1755.[5] and which can be seen in the origins of individuals who married and passed away in Brazil during the late 1700s, with most of them having immigrated from Portugal after the Lisbon earthquake.
Lisbon’s urban growth was also hugely impacted. By 1800 Lisbon’s population stood at approximately 170,000 people, considerably less than what it had been prior to the earthquake in 1755. Moreover, the second half of the eighteenth century was a period of pronounced urban growth across western and central Europe, which makes Lisbon’s demographic stagnation particularly notable. Where it benefited was in the redesign of the city and much of the impressive architecture of the city today was the result of a sophisticated rebuilding program overseen by the chief minister of the Portuguese government, the Marquis of Pombal, in the 1750s, 1760s and 1770s.[6]
See also
Explore more about the 1755 Lisbon earthquake and tsunami
- Portugal, Madeira, Index of Baptisms, 1738-1910 record collection on MyHeritage
- Portugal Deaths, 1640-1910 record collection on MyHeritage
- Brazil, Marriages, 1730-1955 record collection on MyHeritage
- Brazil, Deaths, 1750-1890 record collection on MyHeritage
- MyHeritage Releases Millions of Exclusive Historical Records from Pernambuco, Brazil at the MyHeritage blog
- It Is Well With My Soul: Finding Ancestors Amid the Rubble of Disaster and Misfortune at Legacy Family Tree Webinars
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lisbon earthquake 1755. New World Encyclopedia
- ↑ The Earthquake That Brought Enlightenment. Hakai Magazine
- ↑ WHY IS THERE AN EARTHQUAKE IN CANDIDE? Adventures on the Bookshelf
- ↑ Pereira, Alvaro S.The Opportunity of a Disaster: The Economic Impact of the 1755 Lisbon Earthquake. The Journal of Economic History
- ↑ Alden, Dauril. The Population of Brazil in the Late Eighteenth Century: A Preliminary Study. Duke University Press
- ↑ Lisbon. Encyclopedia.com