1908: Yellowstone erupts

Alberto Knox

A rather far-fetched POD, but could be interesting


On July 8 1908, the Yellowstone Supervolcano erupts. Earthquakes rack the continent as its covered in tons of volcanic ash. The ash cloud spreads across the Northern Hemisphere, plunging it into a deep volcanic winter.

What happens to the world from this point on? Something not unlike Peshawar I'd imagine :D
 

VT45

Banned
Civilization definitely grinds to a halt. But a Peshawar scenario? I doubt it. The nuclear winter only lasts a few years. And with factories belching smoke into the atmosphere at such a rate as they were, it might last an even shorter amount of time.
 

Lord Grattan

1st, there wouldn't be a "deep volcanic winter", though we would have cooler/colder temps and a more hazy sky for a few years, and an economic depression due to massive crop failures. Perhaps the the rise of communism would occur earlier and perhaps there would be more communist uprisings and social unrest, even an earlier WWI. Humanity, led by Yankee inginuity would find a way to adapt to the (hopefully) temporary changes in the climate and we'd overcome.

Also, Al Gore would not be talking about global warming 100 years later:D.
 

Boom22

Lord Grattan said:
1st, there wouldn't be a "deep volcanic winter", though we would have cooler/colder temps and a more hazy sky for a few years, and an economic depression due to massive crop failures. Perhaps the the rise of communism would occur earlier and perhaps there would be more communist uprisings and social unrest, even an earlier WWI. Humanity, led by Canuck inginuity would find a way to adapt to the (hopefully) temporary changes in the climate and we'd overcome.

Also, Al Gore would not be talking about global warming 100 years later:D.
Click to expand...
Fixed a typo...:D
 

Something

I guess that the USA won't be a superpower like OTL with over half of the continental US covered under ash and the Great Plains completely ruined. Although in a few decades, the volcanic ash would make the Great Plains even more fertile.
 

alt_historian

Lord Grattan said:
1st, there wouldn't be a "deep volcanic winter", though we would have cooler/colder temps and a more hazy sky for a few years, and an economic depression due to massive crop failures. Perhaps the the rise of communism would occur earlier and perhaps there would be more communist uprisings and social unrest, even an earlier WWI. Humanity, led by Yankee inginuity would find a way to adapt to the (hopefully) temporary changes in the climate and we'd overcome.

Also, Al Gore would not be talking about global warming 100 years later:D.
Click to expand...

Yes, yes... you Yanks may talk of 'innovation', but it is the experience and might of the British Empire which will see the world through this crisis!

(;))
 
Glen

Glen

Moderator
TR likely chooses to remain president, being unwilling to abandon the nation in a crisis.

IIRC, the ash will effect the west the most. California's not going to be as populous for a while.

Basically, it will increase the dominance of the East Coast compared to the rest of the country for decades to come.

Wonder how it impacts the Ottoman Empire....
 

ninebucks

Banned
I think the big winner in this scenario will be India. The subcontinent is far enough away from the eruption to not be hit too hardly, (the weather altering effects will be global, but at least they won't have murderous hot ash blasting through the skies for days on end). Furthermore, with half of its biggest trade partner blown up, the British Isles will be going through some patchy economic times, probably patchy enough to stop Britannia 'ruling the waves' for a decade or so, (the waves, by the way, will be very unruly), - with Britain facing widespread crop failures, chaotic weather and economic ruination, there really won't be anything to stop various chunks of the Empire declaring their independence.
 
Mr_ Bondoc

Mr_ Bondoc

Some items to consider for the ATL is that there are several people who claimed to have predicted the Apocalypse for 1908. Anglican Minister Michael Baxter predicted c. April 23, 1908. Lee T. Spangler predicted sometime around October 1908. The Jehovah's Witnesses claimed that Armageddon would take place before 1910. In the TL, it is pretty certain that these are people who would be seen as prophets in the ATL. Ellen G. White, Seventh Day Adventists, predicted the Apocalypse soon after the destruction of San Francisco, CA and Oakland, CA in the 1906 Earthquake. Edgar Cayce a.k.a. "America's Prophet" was granting psychic readings around this time period. All of these candidates would certainly be seen as new prophets....
 
Glen

Glen

Moderator
ninebucks said:
I think the big winner in this scenario will be India. The subcontinent is far enough away from the eruption to not be hit too hardly, (the weather altering effects will be global, but at least they won't have murderous hot ash blasting through the skies for days on end). Furthermore, with half of its biggest trade partner blown up, the British Isles will be going through some patchy economic times, probably patchy enough to stop Britannia 'ruling the waves' for a decade or so, (the waves, by the way, will be very unruly), - with Britain facing widespread crop failures, chaotic weather and economic ruination, there really won't be anything to stop various chunks of the Empire declaring their independence.
Click to expand...

Big guns? Not likely to let go lightly when they need to Empire to keep afloat...
 
Glen

Glen

Moderator
Boom22 said:
How about Christian doomsayers?
Click to expand...

Mr_ Bondoc said:
Some items to consider for the ATL is that there are several people who claimed to have predicted the Apocalypse for 1908. Anglican Minister Michael Baxter predicted c. April 23, 1908. Lee T. Spangler predicted sometime around October 1908. The Jehovah's Witnesses claimed that Armageddon would take place before 1910. In the TL, it is pretty certain that these are people who would be seen as prophets in the ATL. Ellen G. White, Seventh Day Adventists, predicted the Apocalypse soon after the destruction of San Francisco, CA and Oakland, CA in the 1906 Earthquake. Edgar Cayce a.k.a. "America's Prophet" was granting psychic readings around this time period. All of these candidates would certainly be seen as new prophets....
Click to expand...

Interesting angle, but will probably be only a minor blip in history.
 
Mr_ Bondoc

Mr_ Bondoc

Glen said:
Interesting angle, but will probably be only a minor blip in history.
Click to expand...
One dark twist to the entire premise is the fact that with the Christian fundamentalist fanaticism, is that in the aftermath of the disaster, groups such as the Ku Klux Klan would receive a massive resurgence. This is a period when the KKK gained prominence through books such as The Clansman (1905) by Thomas F. Dixon Jr., plays such as The Leopard's Spots (1902) and films such as Birth of a Nation (1915) served to mythologize the Klan as "defenders of the white race". The formation of the NAACP was formed in part due to the rise of vigilanteism and its attacks against African-Americans and Mexican-Americans from the 1900s until the 1930s.

In the ATL, the Klan and similar vigilante groups would certainly act as "the sword" and "foot soldiers" of the "New Order", while the self-proclaimed prophets would act as the "conscience" of thecountry. This would certainly serve to create a racist, anti-Catholic, and anti-immigrant regime. On the West Coast, this would be marked by fears of the "Yellow Peril" (Asian immigration, esp. Chinese and Filipino)....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top