Aragorn's Reunited Empire: Just a paper dream?

[Formendacil]

Another thing to note is that Aragorn was king for over 100 years. That's an entire century during which his kingdom was more or less at peace internally. All the indications were that throughout Elessar's reign, at least, Gondor suffered no civil war, no major famines, plagues, or invasions.

As regards the baby boom effect then, it could easily have been a several generation baby boom. There is certainly room for four, or five generations to be born in the span of Elessar's reign. So if the population doubled (to pick a number), thus having four children for every two adults, then the population of the United Kingdom would have been 16-32 times as much at the onset of Eldarion's reign than at the beginning of his father's.

With that sort of a population boom in Gondor, you could easily rebuild the dwindling population of that land, as well as send plenty of settlers north to the re-established kingdom of Arnor.

[Lalaith]

Lord Melkor, I'm extremly impressed by your grasp of Middle Earth geo-politics which far exceeds mine, but I feel you are starting from a premise that the various territories and kingdoms needed to be brought under Elessar's rule by force.
I think Tolkien's view was of a consenting federation. If you want an analogy, look at the European Union, after the fall of the Iron Curtain. No-one is forcing anyone to be part of it, but there's countries of the former Eastern Bloc, and now the near East: Turkey, Cyprus etc, clamouring to get in because the EU is prosperous and peaceful and by and large, it makes good economic sense to join.
Or, if you want to get more mediaeval, there was the Hanseatic League, which was a similar and most popular arrangement...

[davem]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

If you want an analogy, look at the European Union, after the fall of the Iron Curtain. No-one is forcing anyone to be part of it, but there's countries of the former Eastern Bloc, and now the near East: Turkey, Cyprus etc, clamouring to get in because the EU is prosperous and peaceful and by and large, it makes good economic sense to join.

Yeah - Fourth Age Gondor: funny money, straight bananas from Far Harad, a constitution that nobody wants, enough red tape to reach to Valinor & back a couple of dozen times, beaurocrats taking over the top six levels of Minas Tirith & spending half the week running things from Gondor & the other half from Arnor.

[Lalaith]

No-one is forcing anyone to be part of it

[davem]

Originally Posted by Lalaith

Think you may be confusing Fourth Age Gondor with Third Age Mordor.....

[Lalaith]

Ahem. Put down that Daily Mail, davem. I wasn't trying to make a political point, I was merely putting forward the thesis that there are now, and have previously been in history, countries who feel that belonging a loose federation of peaceful and mutually supportive states was something beneficial, and they wouldn't necessarily need military coercion to stay involved. As could have been the case in Elessar's realm.

[Lalwendë]

Some of the 'conquered' nations possibly could have been managed via a system of client kingdoms, in much the same way as the Romans managed ther own empire. Suitable native leaders, sympathetic to the aims of Gondor, would be placed in positions of power according to what kind of loyalty they could offer. I don't doubt that such leaders will have been easy enough to find, but getting to that point will have been a tremendous struggle in any case.

Nations such as Harad and Khand have been allied with Sauron and after his downfall, there would have been an immense power vacuum waiting to be filled by the strongest, richest warlords. In addition, such countries may have also faced consequences such as famine and total collapse of their infrastructure if their menfolk had been slaughtered en masse; this would only enhance the power of warlords. This is an unfortunate consequence when an empire suddenly collapses. Hence Gondor will have been faced with either leaving them to it, or in risking involvement in further conflict in distant lands.

Gondor may have relied upon long standing or newly forged alliances with nations such as Rohan and The Shire to maintain peace in 'the west' and chosen to go and fight it out amongst the former Mordorian states, but I wonder if even Gondor would really have had the capacity for this for several years.