Editing Intendant (section)

==Spain and Spanish Empire==
Intendants were introduced into Spain and the [[Spanish Empire]] during the eighteenth-century [[Bourbon Reforms]]. The reforms were designed by the new dynasty to make political administration more efficient and to promote economic, commercial, and fiscal development of their new realms.<ref>James Lockhart and Stuart Schwartz, ''Early Latin America'', New York: Cambridge University Press 1983, pp. 352.</ref> An ''intendente'' was in charge of a Spanish administrative unit, called an '''''intendencia''''', which could include one or more provinces. The ''intendente'' was appointed directly by the Crown and had responsibility to oversee the treasury, the collection of taxes, and corruption practices and to promote agriculture and economic growth in general. With fiscal powers that gave them a say in almost all administrative, ecclesiastical and military matters, ''intendentes'' were conceived by the Bourbon kings to be a check on other local officials (who in the past couple of centuries had come to gain their position through the sale of offices or inheritance), just as the ''intendants'' had been in France a century earlier. Throughout the 18th century the Bourbons experimented with the powers and duties of the intendants, both in Spain and overseas, so what follows is only a general description of the Spanish intendancy. In any given area at any given time, the duties of the intendant would have been specified by the laws that established that particular intendancy.

The first ''intendencias'' were established in Spain after 1711, during the [[War of the Spanish Succession]] on the advice of [[Jean Orry]], who had been sent by [[Louis XIV of France]] to help his young grandson [[Philip V of Spain|Philip V]] set up his new government. The first intendants (''superintendentes generales del ejército'') oversaw the finances of the army and of the territories conquered by the Bourbons, and after the war, they were made permanent (''intendentes de ejército y provincia''). (After 1724, most intendancies lost their military character except in areas with a [[Captaincy|captaincy general]] and in [[Navarre]].) In 1749 an intendancy was established in every province, with the intendant also holding the office of [[Corregidor (position)|corregidor]] of the capital city.  (The offices were separated again in 1766). District ''alcaldes mayores'' or ''coregidores'' were subordinated to the provincial ''intendente-corregidor'' and assisted him in managing the province and implementing reforms.<ref>Artola, Miguel. ''Enciclopedia de Historia de España'', Tomo V. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1991. Pgs. 678–679. {{ISBN|84-206-5294-6}}</ref>

As a result of the [[Seven Years' War]] an intendancy was set up in [[Cuba]] in 1764.<ref>Excerpts of the Cuban intendancy regulations can be found at "Establishment of the Intendancy in Cuba" in Charles Gibson, ed. ''The Spanish Tradition in America'' (Columbia, University of South Carolina Press, 1968), 223–228.</ref> The Cuban intendant had oversight of the army's and the royal treasury's finances. (Two new intendancies with oversight only over the treasury were established in 1786 in [[Camagüey]] and [[Santiago de Cuba]].) After a two years of experimentation with the new office, an intendancy was introduced in [[Spanish Louisiana|Louisiana]] (1764).

That same year ''Visitador General'' [[José de Gálvez]] created a plan to set up intendancies in [[New Spain]] (Mexico). The first one was set up in central Mexico in 1786, followed in 1787 by [[Veracruz]], [[Puebla]], [[Valladolid]] in Michoacan, [[Guadalajara]], [[Oaxaca]], [[Guanajuato]], [[Zacatecas]], [[San Luis Potosí]], [[Durango]],  [[Sonora]], and in 1789 [[Mérida, Yucatán|Mérida]], the main city in Yucatán. These administrative changes codified existing regional divisions of Center (Mexico, Veracruz, Puebla, Michoacan), South (Oaxaca, Mérida), and North (Zacatecas, Guanajuato, San Luis Potosí, Durango, and Sonora).

In 1776 Gálvez, now Minister of the Indies, established an intendancy (''superintendencia'') for all of [[Captaincy General of Venezuela|Venezuela]] in 1776, and several in the [[Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata|Río de la Plata]] in 1783.  Most of the overseas intendants were assisted by officials (''subdelegados'') who replaced the old ''corregidores'' or ''alcaldes mayores''.  Initially intendancies were held by a separate person from the [[viceroy]] or the governor, but eventually in many places the offices were granted to one person due to conflicts that emerged between these two.

More intendancies were established in [[Royal Audience of Quito|Quito]], [[Viceroyalty of Peru|Peru]], [[Spanish East Indies|Philippines]], [[Captaincy General of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rico]] (1784), [[Captaincy General of Guatemala|Guatemala]], more areas of [[Viceroyalty of New Spain|New Spain]], [[Captaincy General of Chile|Chile]] (1786) and [[Cuenca, Ecuador|Cuenca]] (1786).  The [[Revolt of the Comuneros (New Granada)|Revolt of the Comuneros]] prevented their installation in [[New Kingdom of Granada|New Granada]].