Are we now talking about technology in general or *only* military? For the Elves, they are, indeed, conservative, one of the things Tolkien himself criticised in his letters - Galadriel's Ring, for example, kept them in stasis, no changes. But if you have magic, do you need machines? However, they did have their own forms of technology. They didn't just whip out wands and make those fabulous weapons by uttering a spell. When Sam gets his wonderful rope in Lothlorien the elves say something along the lines of, gosh, if we'd known you were interested we would have taught you how to make it, pity there's no time. In other words, technology, not magic in this case. It can be taught. Maybe other things they do can be taught? Thranduil, at least, has peasants out there, as you may remember from that chapter in THE HOBBIT, with the "raft elves", so someone is doing the "backbreaking work" and they are elves, not humans.
In THE HOBBIT, the civilization is 19th century, in the Shire at least, which is why I wouldn't mind living there if I was living in ME. : - ) .Have another look - you'll find matches and post offices and other things they just didn't have in the Middle Ages.
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