How was Gondor founded?

[Formendacil]

Originally Posted by eothain of fenland

Since the Gondorians are considered 'the good guys', Tolkien, of course, isn't going to portray them as conquering the lands of the less-educated natives. But, how else could they have settled there? I doubt they would just welcome in these foreigners.

On the contrary, actually. Tolkien gives us several indications that the natives didn't take to the Númenóreans settling in their parts very happily, and the indications are that, after the initial "more gentlemanly" early Númenórean excursions, the explorers from Westernesse brought cold steel to their affairs in Middle-earth. Perhaps the best indications of this friction are to be found in Unfinished Tales, particularly the notes regarding the Númenórean settlements at the mouth of the Gwathló and the deforestation of Minihiriath, but pretty much every text about Númenóreans in the Second Age is rather critical of their exploratory endeavours.

Another hugely important text is the aborted story (whose name, alas, eludes me...) in Volume XII of the HoME: The Peoples of Middle-earth, which deals with the Númenórean explorations from a native point of view (and the black sails of Númenor were not an encouraging sight--though there was some misunderstanding on the natives' part regarding the difference in factions amongst the Númenóreans).

Even in The Lord of the Rings, however, there are suggestions that the Númenóreans and the natives didn't always get along. In particular, I'm thinking of the Dead Men of Dunharrow, who were kin to the pre-Númenórean inhabitants of Gondor and the Dunlendings, and who did not quite see eye-to-eye with Isildur. Admittedly, our sympathy is on Isildur's side here, rather than Sauron's, but one can imagine that the oath made to assist Gondor was initially made by the Dead Men-to-be out of fear for the renewed power of the Númenóreans.

All that being said, though, I don't think Elendil's nine ships (only five of which reached Gondor anyway--the rest sailed to Lindon and became part of Arnor) made a huge impact on the situation. By the time of the deluge, many Númenóreans had already moved to Middle-earth, especially in the areas that later became Gondor and Arnor, because the Faithful had been fleeing the King's Men for centuries. Elendil's ships were merely the last load and the catalysts for transforming the colonies into kingdoms. Although there was probably some more movement towards the foothills of the White Mountains, the Númenóreans had been in Pelargir and Tharbad for centuries and had probably already won most of Gondor's land.

Or so I would guess, anyway. For one thing, Isildur and Anárion's century-reign before the War of the Last Alliance does not seem to have been one of fighting to establish Gondor so much as one of building up Gondor (starting the major landmarks that would come to be associated with the Númenóreans, such as the royal cities, the palantíri towers, and places like the Stone of Erech and the Argonath). I don't think such a program of nation-building would have occurred if the Númenóreans were still seriously in the process of acquiring the land they were building on--although the defensive parts of the building program probably do reflect the fact that the initial inhabitants, if pacified, weren't considered assimilated or anything other than potential enemies.