INTENDENTE

royal official appointed by the 18th-century kings of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain. Modeled after the French intendants, the intendentes were to serve as instruments of royal centralization and administrative reform but were frequently resisted as conflicting with local privileges. In the Spanish colonies the system was imposed in Cuba (1765) after the brief British occupation of Havana. With the creation of the new viceroyalty of La Plata, the system was applied throughout that area, which was divided into 12 intendencies (intendencias) from Buenos Aires to Potos (1776).