Board Thread:Questions and Answers/@comment-25954624-20150115004105/@comment-26116279-20150223230940

USA would be more like Mirkwood or Lothlorien. Lindon did not participate in the war of the ring.

Gondor was originally modelled after the byzantine empire, still a world power but by  the war of the ring it was declining, the only difference is gondor survived and rose back unlike the byzantine empire.

The shire is very specifically the Oxford countryside which it was modelled after not all of england.

Near and Far Harad are more like the Middle East and Maybe India

The Dark Land is Africa.