History, as a remembrance of a country’s rise and fall, is hardly neglected by the public, through various ways. The once hit cultural exploration program National Treasure on CCTV once again inspired millions of people to pay their attention back to the country’s glorious history. In the first season of the program, nine museums ranging from the Palace Museum to other eight major museums throughout China are participating, and each of which needs to select three most precious treasures in its museum to present its “previous history” and “present life”. Through this form, this show aims to inspire more people to get involved in the ancient civilization and make the national treasures “come live”.

Currently, no academic work examines the history of the legality of roads in Chile during its independent existence as a sovereign country. Addressing this gap in the literature, this paper focuses specially on the period from 1842 to 1969, when different actors articulated a set of guiding ideas about the duties of the state and the legal powers of the administrative authority in terms of planning, construction and management of road infrastructure that would allow connectivity between population centers and across regions, according to the ideas and resources available at their historical time. This historical overview of Chilean “road law” is done in the light of insights and questions of contemporary intellectual history and institutional history. In this regard, it is argued that the evolution of road infrastructure norms and institutions during the period under study can be divided into three historical regimes, based on their fundamental legislative milestones, guiding ideas, institutional settings, and strategies of state action: from 1842 to 1887, a period of a decentralized “minimal road state” with precarious roads characterized by both material and juridical uncertainty; from 1887 to 1920, the emergence of a “proto-developmentalist road state” intent on strengthening its grip on the nationwide road infrastructure; and from 1920 to 1969, a period of a “techno-developmentalist road state” that created a nationwide paved road network for the new technology of mobile vehicles.