What if WW1 extended beyond Earth?

Should I reconsider this scenario?

  • Yes

    Votes: 14 77.8%
  • No

    Votes: 4 22.2%

  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .

Cadendish

Banned
Hi everyone this my first thread so don't expect anything too professional.:)
So I thought that since WW1 had been the first war to introduce combat to the air,what if it went beyond that?
So let's say space travel is established earlier then it was in our timeline and the great European empires have a scramble for Africa but in the solar system and so when WW1 begins it's not just fought on Earth it is fought in the cosmos too.
Discuss.
 
As neat as an Ottoman space station could be or a Bolshevik Revolution on Mars (I think that was basically an old PS2 video game,forgot the name though),I don't see how it could happen without a Pre-1900 ASB PoD.

In fact,I feel the reason our technology is so far along now compared to a hundred years ago is largely due to the two World Wars and the Cold War. As 1817 and 1917,while there were lots of progress,I would say there wasn't as much as 1917-2017.
 
If you would have such POD that there would be space technology on 1914 world would be totally unrecognsible. You just don't get space technology surrendly without ASBs.
 
Hi everyone this my first thread so don't expect anything too professional.:)
So I thought that since WW1 had been the first war to introduce combat to the air,what if it went beyond that?
So let's say space travel is established earlier then it was in our timeline and the great European empires have a scramble for Africa but in the solar system and so when WW1 begins it's not just fought on Earth it is fought in the cosmos too.
Discuss.
Easy victory in space for the entente, because of the British Empire's monopoly on Cavorite, whereas the Central Powers would stuck with achieving orbit using 19th century style howitzers
 
As neat as an Ottoman space station could be or a Bolshevik Revolution on Mars (I think that was basically an old PS2 video game,forgot the name though),I don't see how it could happen without a Pre-1900 ASB PoD.

In fact,I feel the reason our technology is so far along now compared to a hundred years ago is largely due to the two World Wars and the Cold War. As 1817 and 1917,while there were lots of progress,I would say there wasn't as much as 1917-2017.

Red Faction.
 

Cadendish

Banned
If you would have such POD that there would be space technology on 1914 world would be totally unrecognsible. You just don't get space technology surrendly without ASBs.
Well let's say that technological advancement changed after the civil war.
 
Well, I'd be interested in satellites being invented earlier, and thus you have Cold War-era spy satellites (and weather satellites, their usefulness is huge) in the era of a Great War. But if you mix World War I and space, it's really only World War I in name only. And remember that even to this day, satellites can fairly easily be shot down with only the Kessler Effect as a deterrant.

Really, no one would care if German and British explorers are on the Moon or Mars together while their nations are at war, since it isn't like German and British explorers cared so much while exploring Antarctica in the 1910s.
 

Cadendish

Banned
Well, I'd be interested in satellites being invented earlier, and thus you have Cold War-era spy satellites (and weather satellites, their usefulness is huge) in the era of a Great War. But if you mix World War I and space, it's really only World War I in name only. And remember that even to this day, satellites can fairly easily be shot down with only the Kessler Effect as a deterrant.

Really, no one would care if German and British explorers are on the Moon or Mars together while their nations are at war, since it isn't like German and British explorers cared so much while exploring Antarctica in the 1910s.
But they're not being explored anymore
 
Leaving aside any question of plausible points of divergence here, which is really the first and most important question --

Historically the space programs grew out of efforts to deliver nuclear weapons.

So hard to envision this scenario without nuclear weapons, and if there are nuclear weapons that can be delivered by long-range guided weapons, you won't have trench warfare. At least in the European theater, it will be a very short war!
 

Tovarich

Banned
Well how you would explain it?

Hi Cadendish, welcome to the asylum.

I think @James G was referring to within this board only, Post-1900 entries require that the scenario actually be possible.
Your scenario would require a POD (Point Of Departure) from OTL (Our Time-Line, or 'Real Life') decades before 1900 in order for the technologies & engineering skills required for a space programme to develop.
In addition, you need a level of financial resources that simply didn't exist back then, plus a motivation for developing spaceflight at all (OTL it was Cold War one-upmanship & needing a delivery system for nuclear weapons.

Which brings us to the Butterfly Effect: Once you have the above, the Edwardian Age (if it's even still called that) would be completely unrecogniseable from our history.

However, fear not, for if you just want to tell a story because you enjoy Edwardian aesthetics and spaceflight (that would be between Steampunk & Dieselpunk, but I'm not sure what you call that) and wish throw a 'Butterfly Net' over the story, that's precisely what the ASB section is for.

Some of the best & most gripping stories on this site can be found there; and sometimes members who spend too long on here (ahem) can forget that pure escapism & amusement are perfectly fine motivations for a tale.
 
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Leaving aside any question of plausible points of divergence here, which is really the first and most important question --

Historically the space programs grew out of efforts to deliver nuclear weapons.

So hard to envision this scenario without nuclear weapons, and if there are nuclear weapons that can be delivered by long-range guided weapons, you won't have trench warfare. At least in the European theater, it will be a very short war!

Even without nukes, just dropping rocks from space would turn all of Earth into a cratered no-man's land like in Cowboy Bebop. At least there wouldn't be unexploded ordinance afterwards.

Likewise the Lunar moors and Martian steppes and Venusian jungles; you can't build a Maginot line against orbital bombardment.
 
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JamesG

Donor
Hi Cadendish, welcome to the asylum.

I think @JamesG was referring to within this board only, Post-1900 entries require that the scenario actually be possible.
Your scenario would require a POD (Point Of Departure) from OTL (Our Time-Line, or 'Real Life') decades before 1900 in order for the technologies & engineering skills required for a space programme to develop.
In addition, you need a level of financial resources that simply didn't exist back then, plus a motivation for developing spaceflight at all (OTL it was Cold War one-upmanship & needing a delivery system for nuclear weapons.

Which brings us to the Butterfly Effect: Once you have the above, the Edwardian Age (if it's even still called that) would be completely unrecogniseable from our history.

However, fear not, for if you just want to tell a story because you enjoy Edwardian aesthetics and spaceflight (that would be between Steampunk & Dieselpunk, but I'm not sure what you call that) and wish throw a 'Butterfly Net' over the story, that's precisely what the ASB section is for.

Some of the best & most gripping stories on this site can be found there; and sometimes members who spend too long on here (ahem) can forget that pure escapism & amusement are perfectly fine motivations for a tale.

I think you mean @James G, but yeah, I would have meant that if I'd said it.
 
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