The work which allowed Inca territorial expansion and
later socioeconomic organization was without a doubt the vast road network
which included bridges,
tambos and warehouses.
Few nations in the sixteenth century could have boasted of possessing such
a fantastic road complex as Tahuantinsuyo.
Roads were not an Inca invention, they must have existed a long time before to join the different ethnic groups, to perform pilgrimages to the main sanctuaries or huacas and take care of exchanges between the señoríos.
Surely the Wari hegemony had roads to all the limits reached by their domains and they were indispensable to maintain their political organization. Likewise, the Chimu whose dominions took in a wide zone of the north coast, used routes presently recognized by archaeologists.
Nevertheless, traffic was not allowed for everyone in every moment. In the
report on Chincha the frequent state of war existing between the señorios
is mentioned, a situation which prevented free circulation without the authorization
of the
curacas. The routes remained free when
truces were established which surely coincided with religious ceremonies for
the most important huacas.
With the rise of Tahuantinsuyo the number of roads increased until they reached an extraordinary magnitude. According to the estimations of Hyslop, the road system included 30 to 50 thousand kilometers in its totality. The merit of the Inca consisted in planning the labor force which executed the network of roads which would be the base of the state infrastructure. However, as the irony of fate would have it, the roads facilitated the followers of Pizarro in their conquest of the Andean state.
The Inca government needed the routes to move their armies, to send the
mitimaes
to distant places where they were needed, and also to send administrators,
judges and inspectors to the farthest towns. Therefore the road network responded
to all the exclusive aims of the central government and not the particular
ethnicities. That is the basic point which distinguishes the Andean system
from modern routes of communication.
There were two trunk roads, one extended the length of the highlands from south to north and the second joined the coastal valleys to each other. Between the two regions, other roads connected the principal ones.
There is not a single pattern given for the Inca routes. They adapted to the geography of the zone. In the coastal valleys, mud walls bordered the roads and singing canals offered water to travelers. Moreover, leafy trees gave their shade. In the deserts, stones or trunks of trees marked the route so travelers could avoid getting lost. In the highlands some roads were cobbled and fenced by stones, while steps climbed the rough slopes. On precipices, some parapets protected travelers and packs of camelids so they would not fall into the abyss.
