On the morning of 1 November 1755, at around 9.30am, a violent earthquake devastated the capital of Portugal. It was the greatest cataclysm to have struck Western Europe. A series of tremors transformed Lisbon into a heap of ruins. A tsunami soon engulfed the riverbank where hundreds of people had found refuge. As buildings collapsed, a great fire spread and swept through the city for more than a week. The earthquake destroyed Lisbon and much of southern Portugal, and caused extensive damage in Spain and Morocco. The tsunami triggered by the quake was felt as far away as the British islands, Newfoundland and the Caribbean Sea. According to an English merchant, who was in the city at the time, nothing could have predicted such a terrible disaster:

There never was a finer morning seen than the first of November, the sun shone out in its full lustre; the whole face of the sky was perfectly serene and clear; and not the least signal or warning of that approaching event, which has made this once flourishing, opulent, and populous city, a scene of the utmost horror and desolation.