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The idea of ​​"Candide" (1758) appeared in Voltaire from an inner need to reconsider their views on the philosophy of Leibniz, whose ideas, in particular his "theological optimism", divided by the writer in his youth. But the ideological content of the story is much broader debate with a particular philosopher Leibniz whether or Pascal. One of the external shocks to the revision of its philosophical views Voltaire and - indirectly - to write "Candide" was the Lisbon earthquake of 1755. To whom Voltaire devoted a small philosophical poem "The Lisbon earthquake" (1756), and that appears in the story (chapters 5-6). "Candide" was also a response to cover the whole of Europe struggle with the Jesuits.