At the launch of Rulers of the Sea around a hundred ports will be uninhabited. This means that a port can be created on those locations. However, as the game proceeds uninhabited ports might be colonized and inhabited ports might fall into decline and become uninhabited.
Uninhabited ports might not be on the map if they are at unexplored locations. Once an uninhabited port is visited by a gamer, he/she can decide to petition their government to let them colonize it. If the government allows colonization a claim is established. The gamer now has seven days to complete colonization after which the claim is available again for others to make.
The Gamer has to finance and organize the colonization him/herself, but the reward is becoming Governor of the port once the colonization succeeds. Tons of provisions and building materials and a minimum of five-hundred colonists have to be transported to the uninhabited port.
If all requirements of colonization are met within seven days the uninhabited port becomes a basic colony port. The gamer is now a Governor and can start to improve the port and develop it into the bustling powerhouse of trade and commerce they always hoped to manage.
Naturally, other nations or competing gamers might not be happy with this creation of a colony (by anyone else than themselves) and might attempt to hamper the efforts of colonization. So it will by no means be easy.
All ports except the port of a capital city can fall into decline and become uninhabited ports. This happens when the port citizen count drops below two-hundred people. This can happen when a Governor can’t get the emigration of the citizens under control. A way to prevent this is to import colonists, an expensive measure to maintain. If a port becomes uninhabited all properties fall into disrepair, the port will no longer be available for a population and it will be open to claims of new colonizers.