ComradeHuxley
Donor
This idea is basically based on a simple idea what if we combine the excellent timeline of Reach for the Skies: A Space Mad USA in 1876 with a fleshed out version of this thread Ming Dynasty and Steam Power and the Ch'ing-yang event of 1490.
The Ch'ing-yang event of 1490 (Chíing-yang meteor shower) is a presumed meteor shower or air burst in Qingyang in March or April 1490 The area was at the time part of Shaanxi. One surviving account records: " Stones fell like rain in the Ch’ing-yang district. The larger ones were about 1.5 kg, and the smaller ones were about 1 kg. Numerous stones rained in Ch'ing-yang. Their sizes were all different. The larger ones were like goose's eggs and the smaller ones were like water-chestnuts. More than 10,000 people were struck dead. All of the people in the city fled to other places."
Astronomers determined that the annual January Quadrantid meteor shower may have originated with the disintegration of Comet C/1490 Y1, approximately a century after it was first identified in 1490 by Chinese, Japanese, and Korean astronomers. A connection with asteroid (196256) 2003 EH1 has also been suggested. The large difference between the timing of the January meteor showers and the 1490 Ch'ing-yang event—which occurred in March or April 1490 AD—makes a relationship between the comet and the Ch'ing-yang event appear unlikely.
But in an alternate timeline a Ming China might be just advanced enough to draw the wrong connection and feel threatend by the only danger remaining left in the world for the industrialized Middle Kindgdom - the heaven itself crashing down on them.
Source/Quote: Wikipedia Article on the 1490 Ch'ing-yang event
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