Reminds me of that book by Simon Winchester, "Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883," where that natural disaster is described in the context of the beginnings of world-wide news communication. People all over the world read and received updates and basic information about the eruption almost instantly, slowed only be the "last mile" of print media.
Anyone who has researched Napoleon's "100 Days," in 1815 in any depth now knows that Tambora's eruption, at least an order of magnitude more powerful than Krakatoa, occurred only a couple of months before Waterloo, and no one on or around the battlefield had any interest or much information about that catastrophe, though it had a lasting effect on climate a year later, "the year without a summer."
The difference between Tambora and Krakatoa, though the former was more objectively powerful and lasting in its effect, was undersea cables.
The world as we know it did not begin with computer-mediated documents and HTML. It began with "What hath God wrought."
Did you enjoy that book? I always wanted to read it. It was on a list of books to read for geology class this semester, but I ended up getting out of the class. I heard that SW is not a good writer, though.