Enemies of Gondor

[Oroaranion]

Why did the Haradrim, Easterlings, Corsairs and Southrons answer the call of Sauron in the War of the Ring?

The only peoples that Gondor 'offended' that i can think of are the Umbars, who believe Gondor stole their lands. The other four peoples I mention live far away from Gondor, so they have no claim to lands, and being so far away, how would Gondor affect them?

[Gashberz]

I guess they ave heard stories abot it and they want a share in the plunder and the land.

[The Dark Elf]

when Sauron made the ring, he had a short hellish rule. he merely conqured those people. now they are slaves to his will

[Lord of Angmar]

Many of his Mannish allies were probably under the impression that he was simply too strong to overcome, so why not join him and share in his victory?

[Gil-numen]

Gondorians have Numenorean blood and the Numenoreans, in later times, enslaved the men of ME in the south, where they mostly sailed before the downfall.

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Hello

[DarkRose]

Also, they were probably convinced that there would be profits to reap after the fighting was done. Victory was inevitable, or so they thought. I mean, Sauron was this powerful evil seemingly capable of conquering anyone. Why not grab a slice of the pie?

Ah, the greed of men..

[Finwe]

Greed. It was all for greed. It can be a powerful motivator. They all knew how wealthy Gondor was, and wanted to get rich quick by stealing as much plunder as possible, without having to do all the fighting themselves. Yes, they did fight, but not as if they had to organize the entire war by themselves.

[Olorin_TLA]

Also...the men in the West had Elves to help them...other men didn't, so Morgoth and Sauron had basically no one to stop them conquering them. They worshipped Sauron as God, and so answering his call seemed natural.

[swordspoken]

Easterlings are men who refused to make contact with the elves during the great western migration during the early second age. They were cruel perople, but proud. They benefited with their alliance with Mordor. They gave Sauron disciplined warriors and in return he gave them the land they had wanted for a long time.
The Haradrim. They had been ruled mercilessly by the Numenoreans and wanted revenge. There lands were barren and they wanted Gondor's fertile plains.
The Corsairs. These guys used to be part of Gondors navy and were rebels. They were driven south. They would raid the coastline south of gondor. They wanted treasure.

[Gil-Galad]

they mostly wanted revenge not treasure, Castimir the Usurperwas a dark numernorean who rebeld aganest gondor and took over Umbar, which was settled by the numenore's long ago... the easterlings and haradrim looked up to sauron as a god and they wanted revange and land, i don't think it was mentioned very much their main goal was greed... so greed played a very very small part

[Voralphion]

Sauron was held as a god by the men of the south and the east. They worshipped him, so it is only understandalbe that they fought for him when asked.

[rutslegolas]

i think all the men residing within the reach of mordor where his allies as the dark lord could have easily destroyed them so they were forced to join him.

and also i remember that i think the haradrim were the enemies of rohan thus i think they allied with the dark lord to defeat rohan also

<font size=1 color=339966>[ 7:56 AM January 31, 2004: Message edited by: rutslegolas ]

[Kransha]

I would think that most of the "evil men" who joined Sauron had joined him before, considering they may have been disorganized. Sauron seemed to be a god-like thing and be on the winning side, which they wanted.

Plausible reasons for being:
Easterlings: Rumor has it that throughout Rhun are temples to Morgoth and his kin. I suspect that the Easterlings were merely following through on their worshipping of Sauron.
Variags of Khand: Barbaric, possiply leaderless, wanted to be on the winning side, dared not oppose Mordor for fear of losing.
Dunlendings: Same as above.
Haradrim and Corsairs: The only people who we know had a grudge against Gondor, their reasons are obvious, included in some of the reasons above.