Red vial del Tahuantinsuyo

( Inca road system )

The Inca road system (also spelled Inka road system and known as Qhapaq Ñan meaning "royal road" in Quechua) was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. It was about 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) long.: 242  The construction of the roads required a large expenditure of time and effort.: 634 

The network was composed of formal roads carefully planned, engineered, built, marked and maintained; paved where necessary, with stairways to gain elevation, bridges and accessory constructions such as retaining walls, and water drainage systems. It was based on two north–south roads: one along the coast and the second and most important inland and up the mountains, both with numerous branches. It can be directly compared with the road network built during the Roman Emp...Read more

The Inca road system (also spelled Inka road system and known as Qhapaq Ñan meaning "royal road" in Quechua) was the most extensive and advanced transportation system in pre-Columbian South America. It was about 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) long.: 242  The construction of the roads required a large expenditure of time and effort.: 634 

The network was composed of formal roads carefully planned, engineered, built, marked and maintained; paved where necessary, with stairways to gain elevation, bridges and accessory constructions such as retaining walls, and water drainage systems. It was based on two north–south roads: one along the coast and the second and most important inland and up the mountains, both with numerous branches. It can be directly compared with the road network built during the Roman Empire, although the Inca road system was built one thousand years later. The road system allowed for the transfer of information, goods, soldiers and persons, without the use of wheels, within the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire throughout a territory covering almost 2,000,000 km2 (770,000 sq mi) and inhabited by about 12 million people.

The roads were bordered, at intervals, with buildings to allow the most effective usage: at short distance there were relay stations for chasquis, the running messengers; at a one-day walking interval tambos allowed support to the road users and flocks of llama pack animals. Administrative centers with warehouses, called qullqas, for re-distribution of goods were found along the roads. Towards the boundaries of the Inca Empire and in newly conquered areas pukaras (fortresses) were found.

Part of the road network was built by cultures that precede the Inca Empire, notably the Wari culture in the northern central Peru and the Tiwanaku culture in Bolivia. Different organizations such as UNESCO and IUCN have been working to protect the network in collaboration with the governments and communities of the six countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina) through which the Great Inca Road passes.

In modern times some remnant of the roads see heavy use from tourism, such as the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, which is well known by trekkers.

A 2021 study found that its effects have lingered for over 500 years, with wages, nutrition and school levels higher in communities living within 20 kilometers of the Inca Road, compared to similar communities farther away.

Inca Empire era  

Much of the system was the result of the Incas claiming exclusive right over numerous traditional routes, some of which had been constructed centuries earlier, mostly by the Wari empire in the central highlands of Peru and the Tiwanaku culture. This latter had developed around Lake Titicaca, in the current territories of Peru and Bolivia, between the 6th and 12th centuries CE, and had set up a complex and advanced civilization. Many new sections of the road were built or upgraded substantially by the Incas: the one through Chile's Atacama desert and the one along the western margin of Lake Titicaca serve as two examples.[1]: 242 [2]: 97 

The reign of the Incas originated during the Late Intermediate period (between 1000 CE and 1450 CE), when this group dominated only the region of Cusco.[3][4] Inca Pachakutiq[5] began the transformation and expansion of what decades later would become the Tawantinsuyu.[6] The historical stage of the Empire begun around 1438 when, having settled the disputes with local populations around Cusco, the Incas started the conquest of the coastal valleys from Nasca to Pachacamac and the other regions of Chinchaysuyu.[5] Their strategy involved modifying or constructing a road structure that would ensure the connection of the incorporated territory with Cusco and with other administrative centers, allowing the displacement of troops and officials.[4] The Incas' military advance was based mostly on diplomatic deals before the annexation of the new regions and the consolidation of the dominion, considering war as a last resort. The foundation of cities and administrative centers connected by the road system ensured state control of the new incorporated ethnic groups. Topa Inca Yupanqui succeeded to Pachakutiq, and conquered the Chimu reaching the far north region of Quito around 1463; later he extended the conquests to the jungle region of Charcas and, in the south, to Chile.[4]

Colonial era

During the first years of the Colony, the Qhapaq Ñan suffered a stage of abandonment and destruction caused by the abrupt decrease of the number of natives due to illness and war[7][8] which reduced the population from more than 12 million people to about 1.1 million in 50 years[9] and destroyed the social structure that provided labor for road maintenance. The use of the Inca roads became partial and was adapted to the new political and economic targets of the Colony and later of the Viceroyalty where the economic structure was based on the extraction of minerals and commercial production. This implied a dramatic change in the use of the territory. The former integration of longitudinal and transversal territories was reduced to a connection of the Andean valleys and the Altiplano with the coast to allow for the export of products, especially gold and silver, which started flowing to the coast and from there to Spain.[10] A key factor in the dismantling of the network at the subcontinental level was the opening of new routes to connect the emerging production centers (estates and mines) with the coastal ports. In this context, only those routes that covered the new needs were used, abandoning the rest, particularly those that connected to the forts built during the advance of the Inca Empire or those that linked the agricultural spaces with the administrative centres. Nevertheless, the ritual roads that allowed access to the sanctuaries continued to be used under the religious syncretism that has been characterizing the Andean historical moments since the conquest.[10]

Cieza de Leon in 1553 noted the abandonment of the road and stated that although in many places it is already broken down and undone, it shows the great thing that it was.[11] The admiration of the chroniclers was not enough to convince the Spanish ruler of the need to maintain and consolidate the road system rather than abandoning and destroying it. The reduction of the local population to newly built settlements (known as reducciones, a sort of concentration camps) was among the causes of the abandonment of the Inca roads and the building of new ones to connect the reducciones to the centers of Spanish power.[12] Another important factor was the inadequacy of the road for horses and mules introduced by the conquerors, that became the new pack animals, substituting for the lightweight llamas.

Even the new agriculture, derived from Spain, consisting mainly of cereals, changed the appearance of the territory, which was sometimes transformed, cutting and joining several andenes (farming terraces), which in turn reduced the fertile soil due to erosion form rain. The pre-Hispanic agricultural technologies were abandoned or displaced towards marginal spaces, relegated by the colonizers.[10]

Part of the network continued to be used, as well as some of its equipment, such as the tambos, which were transformed into stores and shops, adjusting to the tradition of Spain, where peasant production was taken to them for selling. The tambos entered a new stage as meeting spaces for different ways of life that irremediably ended up integrating new social and territorial structures.[13]

Post-colonial and modern times

After the independence from Spain the American republics, throughout the 19th century, did not provide significant changes to the territory. In the case of Peru, the territorial structure established by the Colony was maintained while the link between the production of the mountains and the coast was consolidated under a logic of extraction and export.[10]

The construction of modern roads and railways was adapted to this logic. It gave priority to the communication with the coasts and was complemented by transversal axes of penetration into the inter-Andean valleys for the channeling of production towards the coastal axis and its seaports. At the end of the eighteenth century, large estates were developed for the supply of raw materials to international markets, together with guano, so the maritime ports of Peru took on special relevance[10] and intense activity requiring an adequate accessibility from the production spaces. Some parts of the Inca roads were still in use in the south of the Altiplano giving access to the main centers for the production of alpaca and vicuña wools, which were in high demand in the international markets.

The twentieth century organization of roads along the Andes gave priority to the Pan-American highway along the coast, following roughly the traces of the coastal Inca road. This highway was then connected to west–east routes into the valleys while the north–south Inca road up the mountains was mostly reduced to local pedestrian transit.

In 2014 the road system became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[14]

^ Cite error: The named reference D'Altroy2002a was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ D'Altroy, Terence N. (1992). Provincial Power in the Inka Empire. Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 1-56098-115-6. ^ Del Busto Duthurburu, José Antonio (2000). Una cronología aproximada del Tahuantinsuyo - Biblioteca Digital Andina - Lima, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú ^ a b c Rostworowski María (2015). Los Incas - Lima: Instituto de Estudios Peruanos ^ a b Cite error: The named reference guia was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Martins, Denise; Weber Elizabeth (2004). O Urbanismo Incaico: As llactas e a construçâo do Tahuantinsuyo - Disciplinarum Scientia. Ciências Humanas - Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul ^ Gareis, Iris 1997). La enfermedad de los dioses: las epidemias del siglo XVI en el virreinato de Perú – Société Suisse des Américanistes - Bullettin 61 ^ Stern, Steve (1986). Los pueblos indígenas del Perú y el desafío de la conquista española. Huamanga hasta 1640 - Alianza editorial - Madrid ^ Cite error: The named reference colapso was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ a b c d e Cite error: The named reference martinez was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ «aunque por muchos lugares está ya desbaratado y deshecho, da muestra de la grande cosa que fue». Pedro Cieza de León, "Crónica del Perú. Primera parte" Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú – Academia Nacional de la Historia 1995 [1553] ^ Cite error: The named reference bar was invoked but never defined (see the help page). ^ Glave, L. M (1989). Caminos indígenas en la sociedad colonial. Siglos XVI-XVII – Instituto de Apoyo Agrario, Lima ^ "How the Inca Empire Engineered a Road Across Some of the World's Most Extreme Terrain". Smithsonianmag.com. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
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