Dismantling an Indigenous transport system: Roadbuilding and state formation in Colombian Amazonia

Abstract

This article examines the simplification of an Indigenous transport system between the Putumayo and Caquetá Rivers, in Colombian Amazonia, into a single road tailored for the transportation needs of rubber barons, Capuchin missionaries, and Colombian government officials. It argues that the road was conceived to secure national sovereignty and facilitate the arrival of settlers and the commercialisation of forest products. However, state support for the project was limited to extraordinary events, such as the war against Peru in the 1930s that compromised Colombian sovereignty in the region. During peacetime, the budget and bureaucracy that made roadbuilding possible disappeared. Moreover, it contends that establishing a single road between the two rivers dismissed the Indigenous environmental and geographic knowledge about the territory, which became another reason for the road's failure. Research for this article relies on oral histories in Colombian Amazonia and archival research in Colombia, Italy, and Spain.