The Man Who Rebuilt

While the king hid in tents outside the city, his minister the Marquis of Pombal took charge. Asked what to do, he reportedly answered: "Bury the dead and feed the living." He organized what many call Europe's first modern disaster response — proof that how a society rebuilds can reveal more than any peacetime triumph.

Pombal rebuilt Lisbon with earthquake-resistant wooden frames set inside stone walls, creating one of the world's first cities designed to survive a quake. He then used the disaster to break the nobility's grip on power.