Historical background         Period 1623 – 1767         Period 1826 – 1855          Year 1923         Present Day

Scientific and Literary Institute

The founding of the Scientific and Literary Institute in 1859—by government decree—responded to the national need to provide higher education outside religious jurisdiction, under which generations of professionals and politicians had been educated during the first half of the century.

After the Guadalupano Josefino College had been closed four years earlier and replaced by the diocesan seminary, the civil authorities of the state, led by Governor Vicente Chico Sein, oversaw the creation of a new educational space: a secular institution under the designation of “Institute.” This occurred at the same time as the War of Reform (1858–1861), which limited the institution’s activities during its first years.

During its early years, the Institute faced the economic, political, and social difficulties caused by national conflicts. Foreign intervention and the armed and political conflicts that followed (1864–1867) led to an uncertain development for the institution.

The stability and maturity of the Institute came alongside the ideals of positivist philosophy, introduced by Gabino Barreda from the ideas of Auguste Comte, which emphasized liberty, order, and progress. These ideas were introduced during the governments of Presidents Benito Juárez and Sebastián Lerdo de Tejada (1867–1876) and later consolidated under the regime of Porfirio Díaz and by state governors Carlos Díez Gutiérrez, Pedro Díez Gutiérrez, Blas Escontría, and José María Espinoza y Cuevas between 1876 and 1911.