Building the King’s Highway is a welcome addition to the historical literature on colonial Mexico specifically and Latin America in general. Very little has been published in English concerning the construction and maintenance of Mexico’s caminos reales. Hence, this well-crafted study helps to fill this void and perhaps will lead others to build on this very important topic.
According to his purposes and the available documentary sources, Castleman first pinpoints the two highway branches that connected Veracruz to the viceregal capital. One linked Jalapa and Perote to Mexico City, while the other did the same for Córdoba and Orizaba. Then the author surveys the history of the camino real extension from Mexico City to Toluca. Castleman soundly observes the increased importance of Mexico’s highway system to viceregal officials by the mid–eighteenth century. During this era, military concerns appeared at the forefront of this new emphasis on roads (especially those...
