The Tunguska meteor falls 8 hours earlier: London obliterated in 1908

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Quite interesting Robbb. I wish I knew more about sports history / athletic history. You know, the 'cool' kind of history people should know. Instead I'm stuck with minutiae from World War One...
 
Anyone having a land dispute with the British will likely act to assert their claims so long as there is not a formal British government.
 
Remember, the vast majority of buildings in London during the first half of the 20th century were built of unreinforced brick and other pre-modern construction. Because of this fact, you cannot use post-1950 nuclear blast scenarios when calculating casualties. We saw during the Blitz the hazard of unreinforced buildings in explosions.

I'd suggest casualties approaching 99% in the immediate blast zone, and falling off in the overpressure zones surrounding. I've linked a modern map with an overlay of a 30 MT blast, which would fall in the middle of the range of possible severities that CalBear quoted. Anyway, here it is.

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/gmap/hydesim.html?ll=-0.17,51.55&yd=30000&z=7
 
Just a quick fact check: Greater London had a population of around about 7 million in 1908, while the UK as a whole had around 44 million.

Assuming maybe 50% fatalities (not unreasonable considering the size of the blast) and some extra due to injuries sustained after the blast (not fallout, but just having flying debris would be bad enough) and that's 4 million deaths. However, although the British political/cultural/financial hub has disappeared (likely taking the royalty and parliament along with it) much of Britain, 40 million people with the industrial heartlands of the north still intact, will still be there and could plausibly rise from the ashes, albeit unrecognizably and certainly without the empire.

London may well be too huge an undertaking to consider rebuilding, and remain an incredibly creepy monument for the foreseeable future. Although I'd foresee Britain coming under some kind of dictatorial government, perhaps a military dictatorship, I'd also foresee what others have talked about: a burst of international solidarity to tackle the great threat from outer space. The blast catches the world at a giddily optimistic time before the plunge into darkness of WWI, so a scientifically romantic effort to reach out to the stars would not be implausible (even though it would take some time to reach results, it would certainly be a lot quicker and more peaceful than OTL).

I do agree that this single event has huge implications for the world.

I don't know... one of the reasons London became such an important city was due to location. It's not as if there are any lingering radiation effects. Are there?

I'm sure it was seriously proposed, during the 19th century, to move Britain's capital to Manchester (EDIT: other people have already noted this). Maybe that would happen, as a kind of halfway compromise with the Scots and the North of England - both of which are suddenly much more important.

I just thought: if London and the surrounding areas go up in a fireball, and we're assuming a thermonuclear blast-sized explosion, and we're still looking for alternate centres of governance: how about the 'Great Universities'? Oxford and Cambridge are traditional centres of wisdom, with plenty of experts in political theory and practice. They're also close enough to the affected area to be able to co-ordinate relief efforts, while being far enough away (according to Amerigo's map) to have suffered only minor effects themselves.
That's probably an unrealistic idea: I just like the notion of a (however temporary) Scholar's Republic.:D

...
The RN is very strong in 1908 - unless a large chunk is sunk as a result of seismic disturbances I still don't know what fraction was stationed at/near Chatham Docks.
...

What about Scapa Flow, though? When did the Grand Fleet start moving up there?

If it hits a couple of weeks before the 1908 Olympics, it might mean the death of the modern Olympics... Paris 1900 and St. Louis 1904 were not very successful Olympic games, and if most of the Olympic officials are in London at the time of the explosion, well, the Modern Olympics would probably end up being a footnote in the history of athletics.

Interestingly, it would have an impact on the modern marathon to this day. The regulation marathon distance of 42.195 km was first set as the distance from Windsor Castle to the Royal Family's viewing stand at the stadium; while it wasn't set as the "official" marathon distance until some years later, who knows what the "official" marathon distance would be today. (probably somewhere around 40-45km)

Maybe the official marathon distance would be what, according to legend, was the original distance run, i.e. exactly 26 miles. That's the version I've heard, anyway.
 
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Lessen the effect

BTW: The famous Meteor Crater in Arizona was the result of a 3.6Mt event (of course that one hit the ground, which lessens the effect considerably).

It would lessen the effect in the immediate area, but I would assume that much more dust and particulate matter would be swept up into the atmosphere than with a detonation in the air. This would affect climate to a degree.
 
-Immediate panic around the world about the end of the world for about 4-6 weeks, especially in N America and major British dominions
-Massive aid from N America and Europe to the UK
-Space program gets major technological boost earlier than OTL, effectively advancing technology much faster (ICBMs by 1940s?!)
-Early use of aerial photography reveals its use as potential war weapon
-UK capital moves to Manchester or Edinburgh for a while
-London is rebuilt slowly over the next 20 years
-WWI is delayed by ~10 years as taste of death and destruction makes people pause and wonder what they might lose in a continental war, but when it does hit the tech is more advanced
-Teddy Roosevelt gets a 3rd term after becoming the de facto leader of the free world, Kaiser becomes spokesperson for much of non-aligned Europe
-India becomes more powerful but stays British
-Commonwealths form a Council with equal representatives at UK parliament with South Africa becoming a satellite by 1909
-US and Germany become wealthy for a while supplying many of the markets left open by UK
-New York and Frankfurt become more powerful centers of trade, Wall Street becomes temporary HQ of Lloyd's (formerly) of London
 
Canadians flocked to the British in World War 1, and they'll do the same here. Britain will get a ton of sympathy from Canada. And in 1884-85 there was a small movement of union between Canada and the British West Indies. I could Canada moving in to help pick up the slack there. In fact, the entire Commonwealth might end picking up the slack for maintaining the Empire. Would it be a stretch to see Canadians or Aussies serving in Africa and India?
 
Interesting.

Destroying London brings Britain down to a more equal footing with the dominions. Is this the impetus to properly create a Federal Empire (or Commonwealth)?

Canada in the Caribbean, Australia & NZ in the Pacific, South Africa in Africa, India shifting towards more independence?

This does, however, likely alter WWI perhaps to the point of it not happening or to the British not supporting the French on land, or even leaving the Empire out altogether.
 
How many members of Parliament were away from London and so survive? If plenty, they may meet (in Birmingham?) and quickly set up a new parliament.

Whoever is highest surviving in the army may declare emergency and start to organize matters, and organize a new general election, and look for an heir to the throne.

London is not all of England. How many telephone and telegraph lines bypassed London?

As no radioactivity, some men would have to penetrate London and rebuild the railways there: perhaps join up all the London main stations with new emergency track laid across the desolation. Watch out for the area near the Thames flooding at high spring tides due to damage to the Thames-side Embankments. Priority to getting some of London's docks working. Britain would recover.
 
This is an interesting what-if - improbable as all hell, but then so was Tunguska.

1. I have not been able to determine whereabouts of the Royal family on June 28-29 - Edward VII had just returned from a state visit to Reval, in Russia, on June 9-13, but I have not been able to determine where he was on the day in question.

However, it is worth noting that Parliament was adjourned on June 24. Which means there is a strong likelihood that the bulk of the members of the House (and certainly the Lords) are out of town, and thus survive. That might be less true of the cabinet, of course, since they would be more likely at their offices in London.

2. It's curious that there is a general assumption that such a blast would destroy the British Empire at a blow. I think the Empire was more resilient than that at that time, and that it is quite possible - even probable - that the tragedy helps bring it closer together in the short term. Electric Monk may be on to something in his idea that this might even create a new impetus to a real federation with the Dominions. If the British and Dominion leaders were smart, they'd do just that.

It's true that in some of the non-white colonies, such a disaster would be seen as a divine judgment - or at least a wonderful opportunity - by leaders of some subject peoples, particularly in the Raj. Risings might happen, but I would expect the Raj to put them down pretty ruthlessly.

3. European politics: It's hard to think that World War I, if it happens,wouldn't unfold quite differently than it does in OTL, and not just because key people (Asquith, Grey, Churchill, etc.) would be dead. The Royal Navy and the military would survive essentially intact, but Britain would have a suddenly new set of urgent priorities - rebuilding London and Essex (and yes, I think they would be rebuilt). British finance - the financial leaders, the exchanges, the financial records, the monetary reserves - would be decimated, and that would likely bring on a severe world recession, if not depression, given London's status as financier to most of the world. Meanwhile, it's quite probable that growing popular resentment and hatred of Britain in Germany, especially in its leadership circles, would be transformed to profound sympathy. That might make an Anglo-German rapprochement more likely. Thoughts of exploiting British weakness would be offset by profound fear given the suddenness and magnitude of this hammer blow from the heavens, and that might remove a lot of the eagerness to go to war across Europe.

4. It's harder to know what this would mean for British politics. Asquith's Liberal government had been in power for a few years, and was still quite popular; Asquith and much of his cabinet would be dead, and the realm would certainly rally around the government in the short run; it could hardly be blamed for such an inconceivable event. Whether the new junior leadership would be up to the task is harder to say. More likely you would see a national government formed, composing Tory and even Labour leadership, and that would last until at least the next election, whenever it happened. That would reduce the likelihood of the looming constitutional crisis over the House of Lords' power over finance bills, but would reduce it to a nullity in any event since none of the Lords would likely muster much resistance against the emergency program of assistance and rebuilding that would put forward by the government.

5. There would quite obviously be a great deal of interest in astronomy and aerospace science. The heavens would be looked on with a new and powerful sense of fear. The optimism of the Edwardian world would be shaken, but also redirected to acquiring greater knowledge of such celestial bodies, and possible means to warding them off. Unfortunately, the means to really accomplish either were still generations off even with unlimited funding levels and public support. Could that zeal sustain itself for so long?
 
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