[Music] it's 1755 and all saints day starts like any other day in lisbon suddenly everything began to feel different the seagulls began to screech and then the tragedy started their houses came tumbling down and people thought this is god punishing us and then the tsunami came out after that a huge fire broke out everything went up in a flame the whole city it was one of the deadliest earthquakes the world has ever seen tens of thousands died lisbon was destroyed but out of the ashes something incredible emerged a new way of thinking and thanks to this man a whole new school of science [Music] in 1755 lisbon was the metropolis the capital of a worldwide colonial empire that stretched in to africa with angola and mozambique and cabo verde also to asia with goa and macau and of course to latin america with brazil portugal was a very very rich kingdom thanks to those riches from the the colonies portugal's was the first truly global empire built on gold sugar and spices that flowed into lisbon and while the wealthy elite enjoyed a lavish lifestyle the ordinary population struggled most if not all of europe were absolute monarchies that means the king had absolute power over its people and the second biggest power was the church people had a no no voice no vote no saying in in political decisions they were just there to produce and to work the lands news of the disaster in such an important city like lisbon spread quickly it was the first ever worldwide mediatic catastrophe that drew the attention of every gazette a newspaper and traveler all over europe the news reached all the great minds of the time many who were starting to look at the world in a new way many we now associate with the age of enlightenment philosophically instead science was emerging as a better way to explain the world and the way it worked for [Music] it was this man the prime minister of portugal who many credit with the birth of a new school of science the marquis of pumbaa was the king's right-hand man and he was tasked with rebuilding the city of lisbon he began to send out questionnaires to every parish to ask how long did the earth shake how strongly what damages did it cause how many people died did you notice any strange signs before the earthquake this questioner was sent back to him and his team analyzed and compiled a kind of booklet about all the coincidences everywhere until a pattern began to emerge and that became the basis of the seismology science as we know it today in the new lisbon earthquake center visitors can experience the awesome power the effects of that earthquake which started as a series of tremors as people were heading to church are still being felt today it was like when you cast a stone in a pond and the ripples get wider and stronger and affect everything all around the lisbon earthquake unchanged a whole series of events like the end of slavery in portugal which also led to the end of slavery in other european countries as it influenced the trade between britain and portugal and i think it might have also accelerated the american independence from britain i think also it accelerated the french revolution this new free thinking era this era of questioning of the almighty power of the church and all of the almighty power of the kings on earth it was brewing already but i think on that day humanity began to wake up and that is i think that really the day where the modern age was born [Applause] [Music] you