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In 1755, an earthquake measuring 9. 0 on the Richter scale occurred in Lisbon, Portugal, changing European history and philosophy. But how does one geologic event trigger a paradigm shift from naturalism to liberalism Naturalism unites with rationalism during the Age of Enlightenment, a philosophical movement during the 18 th century, which rejects traditional social, religious and political ideas with an emphasis on rationalism. People believe in a world, which follows logical rules, where reason can be used to discover and implement a perfect society. The earthquake in Lisbon shook the very foundation of their beliefs. The earthquake began was centered in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 km WSW of Cape St. Vincent.
The total duration of shaking lasted ten minutes and was comprised of three distinct jolts. Effects from the earthquake were far reaching. The worst damage occurred in the southwest of Portugal. Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, was the largest and the most important of the cities damaged. Three waves struck the shore; each dragging people and debris out to sea and leaving exposed large stretches of the river bottom. In front of the Terreiro do Paco; the maximum height of the waves was about 6 meters.
Boats overcrowded with refugees capsized and sank. In the town Cascais, 30 km west of Lisbon, the waves wrecked several boats and when the water withdrew, large stretches of sea bottom were left uncovered. In coastal areas like Peniche, 80 km north of Lisbon, many people were killed by the tsunami. In Sexual, 30 km south of Lisbon, the water reached the first floor of buildings. Clearly this was a natural disaster of extreme devastation to the people of Lisbon however Voltaire saw this as proof that the theory if optimism was a misconstrued way of thought. Candide and his friends beautifully illustrate this point when they are placed in the center of a situation in which many would utilize the optimistic approach.
The story tells of Candide and his friends ending up on the beach. They then regain their train of thought they proceed to inner city of Lisbon. The three Candide, Pangloss and the sailor come upon the divested sections of the city and the sailor quickly goes to work getting food, liquor and a prostitute while Candide is injured and Pangloss is far to be interested in analyzing the situation. The Lisbon earthquake is in the story solely of the purpose if illustrating Voltaires beliefs on the optimism theory. The Age of Enlightenment or Age of Reason is characterized with a belief in natural law, universal order, and the confidence of human reason in the 18 th century.
The Nazi camp of Auschwitz, located thirty miles west of Krakow, was the largest, most deadly camp used during World War II (Friedrich 2). Built in 1940, it was the first camp located beyond the frontiers of the Third Reich (Friedrich 4). According to various estimates, approximately 1, 600, 000 people were murdered in the killing center. Austrian artillery barracks; Auschwitz was to be supposed to be built at the intersection of the Sola River and the Vistula. The first people who worked to build the camp of Auschwitz were thirty German criminals. Heinrich Himmler, who wanted Auschwitz to be the agricultural center of the new Reich, was still dissatisfied (Friedrich 8).
In March 1941, he ordered the erection of Auschwitz II, a second much larger section of the camp, which was located not far from the original camp. In early October, the first snow fell in the area and cold winter began. No one, not the prisoners, nor those in charge of the camps were prepared for the harsh winter (Adelsberger 49). There were no windows in the barracks, and barely any had heat (Adelsberger 50). That winter, thousands were either shot, or died of starvation (Adelsberger 50).
They were buried in a mass grave that was approximately 150 feet wide, two hundred feet long, and fifteen feet deep. Of the twelve thousand Russians sent to Auschwitz, only a hundred and fifty were left alive in one year. Local fisheries complained of fish dying due to the contamination of the soil around the area. The decomposition of the bodies of the prisoners was beginning to poison the earth. Hotels had to find another way to dispose of the bodies. The leaders and doctors of the camp would line up on the railway and wave the new prisoners into line.
A wave to the left meant a straight trip to the gas chamber. Most woman and children were waved to the left along with the old and sick. In addition, everyone that wanted to remain with his or her families was waved to the left. A wave to the right meant hard labor in construction crews, or slave labor. Auschwitz was the largest graveyard in human history. The number of Jews killed in the gas chambers at Birkenau is estimated to be over one and a half million men, woman, and children.
The horrors of Auschwitz made the name of the camp to serve, as a byword for all that is bestial in humankind. Therefore, the similarity of earthquake in Portugal and Nazi camp Auschwitz is in the concept of evil. One was considered evil in the XVIII century and another in XX. However, the similarity can be found when looking on the beliefs of Voltaire that stated that people think that they lived in the logical world and that the earthquake was shaking their views. The same happened with Auschwitz, where over million people were killed.
These people also though that they live in normal and logical surrounding, however, the disaster of fascism changed this belief. The thing is that actually this happened in XX century, when the world (people believed) was quite civilized and nobody could foresee such a change. I think that it is possible to say that this concepts are similar, but to some extent, because in these two cases sources of evil were nature and men.
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Research essay sample on Comparing Lisbon Earthquake And Auschwitz
