Detailed Description

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 Title: Documentos relativos al Camino de Micay
Creator: Departamento de Cauca
Publication Info: Popayán : Imprenta del Departamento, 1899.
Physical Details: 1-38 p. (incomplete) ; 23 5/10 x 16 8/10 cms.
Physical Condition: Poor: paper yellowing, large tear running through top third, but legible.
Summary: Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera, Augusto Aragón and Roberto White report to the Popayán government about the progress of the works on the Camino de Micay. It includes details concerning the administration of the road and the financial condition of the project.
Historical Notes: During the nineteenth century the construction of a roads network as part of an improved national system of transportation was a priority for Colombia. The nation needed to open up commerce from local to national and global markets. In the nineteenth century, the distribution pattern of population in Colombia corresponded largely to four main regions: the eastern Andes (which included Cundinamarca, Boyacá, Santander and Tolima), the Cauca region, the Antioquia region, and the Atlantic coast. Trade and mobility of the population were mostly intra-regional (180). The Cauca region (in which the Micay road was to be located) included Chocó, an area rich in gold and with territory on the Pacific coast. Despite its gold production this region was connected to the interior only by precarious forms of transportation such as shipment by mule (151). In general, the main obstacle to financing roads was the way in which local economies were structured. On the one hand, producers noticed that when they increased their production, local prices would drop. On the other, locals had very little need for imported goods (152). In nineteenth-century Colombia the national transportation system focused on the Magdalena River (flowing from the center to the north) in order to connect the eastern Andes and the Antioquia region to the main ports in the Caribbean. In the southern part of the country a rudimentary colonial road linked Pasto with Popayán and Cali; this route eventually would follow the Cauca River towards Santa Fe de Antioquia and Medellín. Melo, Jorge Orlando 1982 La Revolución Económica de Colombia, 1830-1900: El Medio Geográfico y los Transportes. In Manual de Historia de Colombia. J.G. Cobo Borda and S. Mutis Durán, eds. Pp. 135-205. Bogotá: Procultura.
Donor Notes: The official report on the progress of the Micay Road, long dream route to connect Popayán to the Pacific. This Tomas Cipriano de Mosquera was a grandson of the General. - J.L.H.
Subject(s): Camino de Micay (Colombia)
Colombia -- Roads
Cauca (Colombia : Department) -- History -- 19th century
Type: Pamphlet
Language: Spanish
Format: JPG
PDF - Color
Donor: Helguera, J. León
Collection: Helguera, J. León Collection
Institution: Vanderbilt University
Accession Number: P02576
Record Number: 242
Islandora ID: islandora:4979