Estrada Real

Estrada Real (Portuguese pronunciation: [iʃˈtɾadɐ ʁeˈaw], Royal Road) is a set of colonial-era roads in Brazil.

The name refers to the land that Portuguese colonial administrators had chosen to improve communication, settlement, and the economic exploitation of Brazil’s resources and of its other colonies. Its "royal" name reflects the economic ideologies of mercantilism, which proposed that colonies existed for the purpose of supplying the metropole with resources. To protect colonial assets from piracy and smuggling, these roads became the only authorized paths for the movement of people and goods. Opening other routes constituted a crime of lèse-majesté. It was similar to the Spanish (Royal Paths) or the United States' "Carretera Militar" (Military Roads), which ensured the flow of goods and the movement of troops in the colonies.

From the second half of the eighteenth century, there was a decline in mineral production in Minas Gerais that led to an increase of fiscal policy and a dissatisfaction which led to the independence movement. With the Independence of Brazil in the early nineteenth century, these paths become free, thus building, with the wealth provided by coffee plantations, the main thrust of urbanization in the Southeast.

Beginning circa 1697, Portuguese colonists in Brazil began using the labor of enslaved Africans to build the road. This was shortly after gold, diamonds, and other precious minerals were discovered in the present-day^[update] state of Minas Gerais. The road's purpose was to facilitate the movement of those minerals from the interior to the coast and thence to Lisbon. The original road—Caminho Velho—began in Paraty and went north through the towns of São João del-Rey, Tiradentes, Coronel Xavier Chaves, Congonhas, Itatiaia and, ultimately, Vila Rica, today's Ouro Preto. Later, the distance to Ouro Preto was shortened by the Caminho Novo, which started from Rio de Janeiro. The road was extended northward through Mariana, Catas Altas, Santa Bárbara, Barão de Cocais, Ipoema, Conceição do Mato Dentro, Serro, São Gonçalo do Rio das Pedras, and, at the northernmost point, Diamantina. The length of both roads combined is about 1,400 km (870 mi).

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