Plural of corregidor; Spanish colonial officials who served as judges and administrators in towns and provinces.
From Spanish corregidor, derived from corregir (to correct) and the agent suffix -dor. The term evolved during the medieval Spanish period to describe officials who corrected abuses and administered justice in place of absent nobility.
Corregidors were essentially Spain's answer to keeping colonial territories under control—they were judge, jury, and administrator all in one person, which meant they had massive power and opportunity for corruption, which is actually why the Spanish crown kept appointing more of them to watch the earlier ones!
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