It existed from 1784 to 1824, receiving the news of the result of the Battle of Ayacucho in late December of the same year.

Created in 1784, the intendancy was under the jurisdiction of the Real Audiencia of Lima until the city's occupation by José de San Martín in the 1820s, when it was transferred to the Real Audiencia of Cuzco [es].

[1] The intendancy was phased out starting on April 26, 1822, when the Department of Arequipa was created by José de San Martín as part of his new protectorate,[2] with Francisco de Paula Otero [es] as its leader.

Despite this establishment, the patriot governments' armies of Peru, Colombia and Chile were subsequently defeated by the royalist troops of Valentín Ferraz y Barrau and Antonio Tur y Berrueta [es] in the Battle of Arequipa [es] of October 8, 1823.

[3] After the royalist capitulation at the Battle of Ayacucho on December 9, 1824, the news reached the intendancy later that month, with Pío de Tristán being chosen as interim viceroy until the Peruvian troops reached the city.