Transportation
4
In 1598, a group of strangers crossed the lands of the Piro and Apache Indians. Spanish armies had passed through here before, but this expedition was different because settlers, priests, guides, and servants traveled with the caravan. Following trade routes Indigenous peoples had used for centuries, and moving with livestock and loaded carros (wagons) and carretas (carts), the expedition carried the Spanish Empire's claims to the land. The route became known as El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (The Royal Road to the Interior Lands). For the next three centuries, El Camino Real served as a route of conquest, settlement, religious conversion, trade, enslavement, and military actions. Stretching 1600 miles, it once linked Spain's colonial capital of Mexico City to its northern frontier in what is now New Mexico.
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New Mexico · United States
