ABSTRACT
The criterion of any judgment on the cabildos in the new era will be whether the intendants made the cabildos more active and whether they allowed them to co-operate in the work they were doing. Yet twenty years later, between approximately 1800 and 1810, in almost all the main cities of the viceroyalty of La Plata vigorous cabildos were in conflict with the local political authorities and challenging them on many issues. The dependence on higher authorities induced a subservience and inertia that can be read in every line of the minutes of the cabildos. But the oligarchic composition of the cabildos themselves was an even greater drag on municipal development. It has been maintained that the cabildos lost part of their authority because the alcaldes and regidores appointed by them had to be confirmed in office by the intendant. Grateful testimonials came from the cabildos of Huan-cavelica and Arequipa.
