Hello everyone,
I have been reading stuff for a long time, but I have only just summoned up the courage to register and post something. however, it really belonged on the Writer's Forum, I think, so that is where I posted it. I'll repost it here, so everyone can see what I put there.
A BRIEF POST-CATASTROPHE HISTORY
Part One: The Great Winter
September 9th, 1910. King George V ruled over the largest Empire the world had ever seen. All was calm in Britain as its people enjoyed the last day of a golden age of wonders. World events - even the Japanese invasion of Korea only two weeks previously - were currently overshadowed by Halley’s Comet as it headed away from the sun to beyond the furthest planets on a course which would bring it so close to Earth that the planet would pass through its tail. The popular press had speculated, sometimes wildly, on the effects this would have: the reporting that cyanide had been detected as present in the gases streaming from the comet had led to the large-scale buying of gas-masks and a racy short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle being published in that month’s Strand Magazine had done nothing to alleviate public disquiet. The Astronomer Royal had been moved to write an article in the Times on the subject; it had been published on September 3rd.
“The tail of a comet - even one so magnificent as this - contains no more particles of matter than would fit into a railway truck,” ran part of the article. “The toxic substances, which I understand have been the cause of some alarm and despondency, would not fill even a small packing-case. It is without doubt that this superb natural phenomenon poses no threat to Mankind whatsoever. Mediaeval peasants may have trembled at comets and believed that they heralded disaster; we have the knowledge that Science brings us that this is not so, and, above all, we are Englishmen. Enough talk of doom; let us marvel at this wondrous sight that Providence has so richly bestowed upon us and let others tremble in their superstitions.”
Those who exercised their memories better than most might have recalled that the death of Edward VII just over six months previously had coincided to the day with the first naked-eye sighting of Halley’s Comet as it plied its 76-year course around the sun. However, this was the Age of Science and even the imaginative Mr. Wells would not have dreamed of what would happen that night (though the French visionary Jules Verne might have come close). The last observations from Greenwich Observatory, as the sun set in a dazzling pattern of swirling gases overhead which glowed long after full darkness, was that the head of the comet had been sighted and might pass even closer to the Earth than the Moon.
At 2:15 am on September 10th, England was shaken by an earthquake. Steeple bells rang in a cacophonic peal, masonry cracked, and some less well-built houses collapsed. Nearly all the populations were awake at dawn, therefore, to see the last sunrise for nearly eight years, pursued and overtaken by clouds of such blackness and speed as had never been seen before. These were the harbingers of rain - salt rain - as though the sea had been flung into the sky.
It had. The head of the comet had come within three hundred miles of the Earth’s surface and had broken up under the gravitational stress inflicted on it. As it flew apart, several large fragments hit the Earth’s surface in a pattern that covered most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Waves approaching three thousand feet in height struck Africa and India; in the latter country they were stopped only by the foothills of the Himalayas. As they retreated, the Ganges became literally choked with the bodies of animals and humans: it is estimated that over 175 million people perished in that first flooding. The Far East countries and Australia were inundated and the coast of Japan took on a new outline. The other large land strike was on the western coast of North America: this triggered the San Andreas Fault and almost half of California disappeared beneath the ocean never to reappear, save for an archipelago of small islands.
As the remains of the comet, now sundered beyond all hope of re-forming, disappeared out of the Solar System, they left behind an Earth that rivalled Venus for brightness. Clouds covered the entire surface; rainfall was measured in feet rather than inches. At the poles it fell as snow, and the glaciers began their southward march again.
The Great Winter of 1911-1919 was a time of terror for most people in England. Even in mid-summer, the clouds only became marginally brighter; water froze from August to April and the green and pleasant land became a wilderness of ice broken only by isolated communities. Southampton was the only ice-free port, kept open by a continual patrol of icebreakers, and the lifeline of the country, as the mother country systematically exploited the resources of what remained of the Empire to keep its people alive. Even so, the population was literally decimated in three years and by the end of the Great Winter had been reduced by a third.
Turmoil reigned in Europe as well. Only France, Spain, Portugal and Italy had open ports, and the price that countries such as Germany, Holland and the Scandinavian countries had to pay for foodstuffs had long-term, far-reaching consequences. The Austro-Hungarian Empire looted the Balkans in order to keep itself alive, and the Ottoman Empire found itself in the enviable position of making money and forcing political advantages out of the situation. Italy, only united since 1870, broke up under the pressure of civil unrest. Only in 1919, under the “moral guidance” of the Papacy, was it able to make a significant recovery.
In Russia, the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917 reduced the country to such a state of anarchy that if anyone could have invaded it, it would have been an easy conquest. The Russian Imperial family were almost completely exterminated by their Bolshevik captors; in turn, the Bolshevik leadership were wiped out by a frenzied revenge attack. Only by 1920 was anything resembling central government in control of what remained of the Russian Empire.
Almost nothing is known of what happened in China and Japan following the Catastrophe. The American presence in the Far East disappeared in a wall of water, and with it a good deal of that country’s sources of food and raw materials. Over the next ten years, the Americans infiltrated, invaded and bought every country they could in Central America, and by 1922 the United States included Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
The return of sunlight to the Earth brought a temporary lull to this mad whirl of conquest, like a group of schoolchildren in the middle of a dormitory fight freezing when the headmaster turned on the light. The world paused, and took stock of what had happened. It was, however, only a brief lull….
I actually wrote it about 15 years ago. The POD is that Halley's Comet strikes the earth in 1910; as a result, there is a 'nuclear winter' from 1911 to 1919. I need help with what happens afterwards, given the fates of the European Great Powers (and the USA, China and Japan). I had some pretty firm ideas in my head about what I wanted to have happen, but as time went on I became more and more unsure about whether the consequences I envisaged would actually be probable, or even possible.
So I am actually looking for feedback (constructive, hopefully) and thoughts on who would emerge as the major players after the Great Winter; where any potential flashpoints would be; and the future of the Great Powers.
Thanks a lot
Mark
I have been reading stuff for a long time, but I have only just summoned up the courage to register and post something. however, it really belonged on the Writer's Forum, I think, so that is where I posted it. I'll repost it here, so everyone can see what I put there.
A BRIEF POST-CATASTROPHE HISTORY
Part One: The Great Winter
September 9th, 1910. King George V ruled over the largest Empire the world had ever seen. All was calm in Britain as its people enjoyed the last day of a golden age of wonders. World events - even the Japanese invasion of Korea only two weeks previously - were currently overshadowed by Halley’s Comet as it headed away from the sun to beyond the furthest planets on a course which would bring it so close to Earth that the planet would pass through its tail. The popular press had speculated, sometimes wildly, on the effects this would have: the reporting that cyanide had been detected as present in the gases streaming from the comet had led to the large-scale buying of gas-masks and a racy short story by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle being published in that month’s Strand Magazine had done nothing to alleviate public disquiet. The Astronomer Royal had been moved to write an article in the Times on the subject; it had been published on September 3rd.
“The tail of a comet - even one so magnificent as this - contains no more particles of matter than would fit into a railway truck,” ran part of the article. “The toxic substances, which I understand have been the cause of some alarm and despondency, would not fill even a small packing-case. It is without doubt that this superb natural phenomenon poses no threat to Mankind whatsoever. Mediaeval peasants may have trembled at comets and believed that they heralded disaster; we have the knowledge that Science brings us that this is not so, and, above all, we are Englishmen. Enough talk of doom; let us marvel at this wondrous sight that Providence has so richly bestowed upon us and let others tremble in their superstitions.”
Those who exercised their memories better than most might have recalled that the death of Edward VII just over six months previously had coincided to the day with the first naked-eye sighting of Halley’s Comet as it plied its 76-year course around the sun. However, this was the Age of Science and even the imaginative Mr. Wells would not have dreamed of what would happen that night (though the French visionary Jules Verne might have come close). The last observations from Greenwich Observatory, as the sun set in a dazzling pattern of swirling gases overhead which glowed long after full darkness, was that the head of the comet had been sighted and might pass even closer to the Earth than the Moon.
At 2:15 am on September 10th, England was shaken by an earthquake. Steeple bells rang in a cacophonic peal, masonry cracked, and some less well-built houses collapsed. Nearly all the populations were awake at dawn, therefore, to see the last sunrise for nearly eight years, pursued and overtaken by clouds of such blackness and speed as had never been seen before. These were the harbingers of rain - salt rain - as though the sea had been flung into the sky.
It had. The head of the comet had come within three hundred miles of the Earth’s surface and had broken up under the gravitational stress inflicted on it. As it flew apart, several large fragments hit the Earth’s surface in a pattern that covered most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Waves approaching three thousand feet in height struck Africa and India; in the latter country they were stopped only by the foothills of the Himalayas. As they retreated, the Ganges became literally choked with the bodies of animals and humans: it is estimated that over 175 million people perished in that first flooding. The Far East countries and Australia were inundated and the coast of Japan took on a new outline. The other large land strike was on the western coast of North America: this triggered the San Andreas Fault and almost half of California disappeared beneath the ocean never to reappear, save for an archipelago of small islands.
As the remains of the comet, now sundered beyond all hope of re-forming, disappeared out of the Solar System, they left behind an Earth that rivalled Venus for brightness. Clouds covered the entire surface; rainfall was measured in feet rather than inches. At the poles it fell as snow, and the glaciers began their southward march again.
The Great Winter of 1911-1919 was a time of terror for most people in England. Even in mid-summer, the clouds only became marginally brighter; water froze from August to April and the green and pleasant land became a wilderness of ice broken only by isolated communities. Southampton was the only ice-free port, kept open by a continual patrol of icebreakers, and the lifeline of the country, as the mother country systematically exploited the resources of what remained of the Empire to keep its people alive. Even so, the population was literally decimated in three years and by the end of the Great Winter had been reduced by a third.
Turmoil reigned in Europe as well. Only France, Spain, Portugal and Italy had open ports, and the price that countries such as Germany, Holland and the Scandinavian countries had to pay for foodstuffs had long-term, far-reaching consequences. The Austro-Hungarian Empire looted the Balkans in order to keep itself alive, and the Ottoman Empire found itself in the enviable position of making money and forcing political advantages out of the situation. Italy, only united since 1870, broke up under the pressure of civil unrest. Only in 1919, under the “moral guidance” of the Papacy, was it able to make a significant recovery.
In Russia, the Bolshevik revolution of October 1917 reduced the country to such a state of anarchy that if anyone could have invaded it, it would have been an easy conquest. The Russian Imperial family were almost completely exterminated by their Bolshevik captors; in turn, the Bolshevik leadership were wiped out by a frenzied revenge attack. Only by 1920 was anything resembling central government in control of what remained of the Russian Empire.
Almost nothing is known of what happened in China and Japan following the Catastrophe. The American presence in the Far East disappeared in a wall of water, and with it a good deal of that country’s sources of food and raw materials. Over the next ten years, the Americans infiltrated, invaded and bought every country they could in Central America, and by 1922 the United States included Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.
The return of sunlight to the Earth brought a temporary lull to this mad whirl of conquest, like a group of schoolchildren in the middle of a dormitory fight freezing when the headmaster turned on the light. The world paused, and took stock of what had happened. It was, however, only a brief lull….
I actually wrote it about 15 years ago. The POD is that Halley's Comet strikes the earth in 1910; as a result, there is a 'nuclear winter' from 1911 to 1919. I need help with what happens afterwards, given the fates of the European Great Powers (and the USA, China and Japan). I had some pretty firm ideas in my head about what I wanted to have happen, but as time went on I became more and more unsure about whether the consequences I envisaged would actually be probable, or even possible.
So I am actually looking for feedback (constructive, hopefully) and thoughts on who would emerge as the major players after the Great Winter; where any potential flashpoints would be; and the future of the Great Powers.
Thanks a lot
Mark
