Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (Royal Road of the Interior)
Camino Real de Tierra Adentro
- Date
- 1598 · confidence medium
- Place
- Zacatecas, Zacatecas, Mexico
- Credited to
- Viceroyalty of New Spain
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A route for carts and mule trains of about 2,600 km from Mexico City to Santa Fe in New Mexico, which carried silver from Zacatecas and Guanajuato, mercury and presidio supplies. It was the backbone of colonial expansion to the north.
The opening is dated to 1598 with Juan de Oñate's expedition to New Mexico, but the stretches to Zacatecas date from the mid-16th century. Declared a World Heritage Site in 2010.
What it led to
- settlement and the mining economy of northern Mexico
- silver and livestock trade with the peoples of the Southwest
- the alignment of later railways and highways in northern Mexico