The history of Lisbon

The history of Lisbon is cornered by the discoveries of navigators maritime, the most important and the most condiderable dating from the beginning of XVème century. The Portuguese prosperity of exploration was freed by Henry the Navigator, who wanted to wind up the Arab monopoly on the African and Asian trading platforms.Among the famous Portuguese pioneers there are Bartholomeu Dias, the first European who crossed the Cape of Good Hope in 1487, Vasco de Gama, the one who discovered an ocean path from Portugal to India, Pedro Alvares Cabral, the very first European who set foot in Brazil in 1500 and Ferdinand Magellan, the one who crossed the meridians of the globe.This period is a spectator of the real success of the Portuguese explorers concerning the knowledge of the monopoly of most of the spice markets. Their travels to Japan and the New World have helped to provide great wealth and enormous power in Portugal.Expeditions not only offered incredible gold, silver and spice treasures, they also brought power and influence. The spread of Catholicism is proving to be a more concrete and lasting result of explorations.On November 1, 1755, around 10:20 am one of the most devastating and deadly earthquakes in the history of mankind occurred. The phenomenon has mainly affected Portugal, specifically the city of Lisbon. It can be estimated that about a quarter of the population of Lisbon, including 200,000 inhabitants, has died.The earthquake of  intensity 9 on the Richter scale was accompanied by a tsunami and a destructive fire sweeping away everything in its path. Almost the majority of the city of Lisbon has been ruined. This event worsened political tensions in Portugal stopping its colonial aspirations. However, the country has been able to design a modern seismological tool to avoid any potential  inconvenience in the future.Despite the disaster and thanks to the enormous colonial wealth of Portugal, a rehabilitation intervention was set up, and in a few months, the entire downtown Lisbon was already rebuilt. These are the central neoclassical bairros of the city that were renovated first.Troop marches were also used to reopen the seismic activity around the buildings, to observe the effects. This rebuilding, however, condensed in the lower zone of Lisbon, and the subsequent economic decline of Portugal, however, blocked the total resurrection of the city.