On May 25, 1751, a powerful earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the city of Concepción in Chile, then part of the Spanish Empire. The quake, estimated at magnitude 8.5, completely destroyed the city and its port, killing thousands and causing a massive wave that inundated the coast. The event was part of a series of major seismic events in the region and forced the Spanish authorities to relocate the city to its present location. The destruction of Concepción highlighted the extreme seismic risk in the region and the vulnerability of colonial settlements.

The 1751 earthquake was documented in Spanish colonial records and contributed to a growing body of literature on natural disasters in the Americas. It served as a powerful example for poets and writers of the Enlightenment who grappled with the problem of evil and the nature of divine providence. The event, along with the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, fueled philosophical debates about the meaning of suffering and the randomness of nature, which found expression in the poetry and essays of the period.