Reposted by Die Capuccinogruft
Abstract for a paper done and dusted!
It's not about animals for a chance of pace, but about other (almost as) interesting topics: Transalpine transport and infrastructure.
Including plenty of dramatic stuff like acts of sabotage (both heinous and absurd) and Siegmund I., a guy I love to hate.
![«Beneficial to only two or three people and to the detriment of an entire country»: Alpine transport, environment and their impact on the rural population (1400-1550).
Crossing the Alps in the Middle Ages was not an easy task – and yet, year after year, thousands of people, animals, and tons of goods streamed across the mountains.
This was possible due to the efforts of local communities, who bore the brunt of the burden of building and maintaining transport infrastructure across the Alps, from pathways to bridges and mountain passes. Daily wear and tear took a significant toll on these structures, making regular repairs a necessity, whilst dangers of the Alpine environment like avalanches or floods could severely damage infrastructure or even sweep it away in an instant.
Alpine communities dealt with these challenges remarkably pragmatically by sharing duties and adapting both buildings and their own use of space to the environment. They used their practical knowledge about the Alps and its terrain additionally to provide transportation services in the form of the so-called Rod-cooperatives, whose transport privileges were supposed to compensate for the onerous upkeep of infrastructure. As this paper will show, based on a comparative analysis of sources on and from villages and transport organisations from Valais to Tyrol, there were considerable regional differences in how transalpine transport developed and impacted the environment and local populations over time. Whilst, for example, transport benefited local communities in Grisons and emboldened them to push for greater autonomy, in Tyrol, by contrast, increasing traffic became such a burden for the rural population, that in the 16th century it had become something which was “beneficial to only two or three people and to the detriment of an entire country”, as the people of Königsberg lamented [sorry, no more space!]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2s6j77pqfowb2qrdn7ddza2j/bafkreiczke67wyhkuisqq5c7and4kt3ruagp2we45eoede73nmtu4l3vtu)
