Integrating the political and governmental histories of Spain and the American colonies, this book focuses on the political and governmental history of the Viceroyalty of Peru during the 'early Bourbon' period and provides a new interpretation of the period's broader significance within Spanish American history.

This study of the structure of government and society in late colonial Peru is based upon detailed examination of the operation of the viceroyalty of the system of administration by intendants, partly in response to the demands for better provincial government expressed by the Túpac Amaru rebellion. Fisher examines relations between the intendants and other groups of administrators, and brings out the revolutionary implications of their attempts to stimulate municipal life and government and assesses Peru's increasing political and administrative instability upon the application of the viceroyalty of the Constitution of Cádiz.