Dr. Bret Devereaux

Where they get their ports and forts

It's because they've asked for them.

And the local ruler has decided it would be beneficial to have a place to trade with these guys.

And we can sell some of our goods and get some of their silver or they may have goods that we want.

Firearms eventually become a major trade good.

Particularly in West Africa.

And so this sort of network of ports and forts is sanctioned by local rulers who expect to gain some sort of advantage by it.

And so you can almost see Gil-Galad being like, it's probably going to be useful to have the Numenoreans able to send a military force in a pinch.

It would be valuable for them to set up these.

At the same time, these sorts of small coastal port and fort settlements, you set them up and then you leave for 10 years.

Things can go wrong in that intervening time.

And one wonders when Tolkien is talking about Aldarion's

and I'm not going to try to pronounce it, but his harbor on the Guaythlo, you know, being just like he leaves, he comes back and it's gone.

And he's like, what the hell?

I mean, of course, you know, some of the famous examples of that are some of the early colonial foundations in North America.

But this could happen either because the settlement just sort of fails or the local rulers that approved it turn hostile for whatever reason in large parts of Africa.

It could just be that everybody died of malaria.

the disease vector and that was pretty harsh.

But like that could happen because you're gone for a really long time, right?

Like the intervals between trade missions in these places could be years, which is part of why you needed a fortified settlement with a warehouse to collect goods over time and a port for the ships to come in because you're going to spend a couple of years collecting stuff for them to pick up when they come through.