The Alpaca/Llama Road

This is taken from this thread - it's two years old... didn't wanna bump it.

I was thinking about this quite a bit, and even thought of extending such a road throughout North America.

This is a map of what I think the major (and minor) trade routes would look like. This is assuming there's some level of culture everywhere so that the road would be completed. Obviously, North America would need to be in the bronze or iron ages.

nsamerica2traderoutescw0.gif


Major Routes

- Dark red is from the Incan capital to the Mayan territory. From there, they can take a northern sea route, or continue through Tenochtitlan. The lighter pink route are the various trade routes that the llama caravan can take.

* Coastal Route - These will go through cultures rich in resources. Gold, Silver, maybe some iron, Whale oil, and if they travel far enough (green route), maybe even some walrus ivory.
* Great Plains Route - Maybe a bit poorer, but they would have access to buffalo, and furs, maybe even deer antlers as a novelty item.
* Mississippi Route - Corn seeds, beans, grapes (aren't the only grapes in the Americas from around the central US or eastern US?), berries, and even some copper or iron from NE Minnesota.
* Eastern Route - Iron, corn, beans, squash, nuts, wild rice (not that the seeds would grow well back home in Inca territory)...

Blue Route - This is the sea route. The islands of Cuba, Haiti/Dominican Republic have iron, nickle, salt and other minerals, so there's bound to be some strong culture eventually forming there.

Minor Routes

Light Yellow Route - Sort of a trans-St. Lawrence River/Great Lakes route. It may only play a role with a large Great Lakes culture.

Green Route - The Ivory Road... maybe for a daring Inca (or Mapuche...).

Lavendar (Canada) - Sort of a "Greater Yukon Route" where the eskimos trade. Maybe seals, and Musk Ox. The name escapes me at the moment... Not sure if they would be very useful.

Dark Purple - Something of a trans-South-American Route. The two routes going east/west are river routes.

Going from Cuzco to any point in the northern US/southern Canadian border is 6,000 miles - about the same as the Silk Road. (It's 4,000 miles to Tenochtitlan). To go up into Alaska, it's 8,000 miles.

Llamas move at half the speed of a camel, and carry half as much, too. So, where a Camel caraven can travel 20-24 miles per day, it's 10-12 for a camel. A 6,000 mile round trip on the Silk Road was 7 years, and would be 14 years (Let's call it 15 even - llamas sometimes stop in their tracks to rest, I've read). The logistics would be much greater, too. More llamas, more people, more stopping points. As if that weren't enough, llamas also live half as long as a Camel. (20 years for a llama, who's only going to be working for 9 years) So, either new llamas are going to need to be purchased, or a breeding stock needs to trail behind the llamas. I'm pretty sure they could be bred to be a bit stronger, or even live longer. (if they can tag each llama by family member, it's possible to keep the ones whose's ancestors lived the longest). Maybe by virtue of having to travel long distances, the llamas that don't keel over during the trip will breed stronger llamas that way. Kind of a forced natural selection.

Wheeled carts would certainly develop at some point, but the question would be when and where, and how long would it take? I'd imagine as soon as the llama reached the lowlands, the wheeled cart would start to take shape. However, given the timeframe in which this happened in the Old World, it could be millenia before that happens. On the other hand, the population density of the New World was a lot higher in 1500 AD than the population density of the Old World was in 4000BC, so it may not take nearly as long.

Wheeled carts would probably develop in the Great Plains, just like chariots did in the Eurasian Steppes. (Even horses couldn't be ridden at first until they were bred to be larger. Maybe the same would happen for llamas. Then you'd have two stocks of llamas - a trade llama, and a sturdier "war llama"). Sure, it may take a few thousand years, but so did the horse.

Anyway, if this route started from the southern tip of South America, and travelled to Alaska, the total time (10,000 miles) would be 21 years. A true epic journey. Imagine a Mapuche kid, aged 10, leaving on the Caravan and returning at age 31.

Sea travel would probably take off after the Carribean/Gulf of Mexico area starts getting better shipping, and thus reducing the need for long land-based journeys - kind of like when the Silk Road gave way to sea routes.

I'm not sure if wheeled travel would help any - it would on Incan roads, and the llamas could probably pull heavier carts than they could normally carry. I'm not sure how they used rubber, or if it could be used on wheels as bit of a shock asorber.
 
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Interesting, but Panama isn't really crossable on land like you show. It's quite swampy. Also, you are really underestimating sea travel. The carribean/Gulf of Mexico should be easilt traversible except during hurrican season, and the gulf of Colombia will also likely be important.
 
Interesting, but Panama isn't really crossable on land like you show. It's quite swampy. Also, you are really underestimating sea travel. The carribean/Gulf of Mexico should be easilt traversible except during hurrican season, and the gulf of Colombia will also likely be important.

Yeah, I know, it was just a general idea. I wasn't underestimating sea travel, either. I was simplly focusing on the land route (thus the 2 year old topic I was replying to). I know that the Carribean, Gulf, and even Mississippi rivers would be quite traversable. I was just trying to focus on the land route before massive sea travel came about.
 
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