Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico

The Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico (in Spanish: Real y Pontificia Universidad de México) was founded on 21 September 1551 by Royal Decree signed by Charles I of Spain, in Valladolid, Spain.[1] It is generally considered the first university officially[2] founded in North America and second in the Americas (preceded by the National University of San Marcos in Lima, Peru, chartered on May 12 of the same year).

Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico

Real y Pontificia Universidad de México
Coat of arms of the Royal and Pontifical University of Mexico
Motto	Patriae scientiae que amor salus populi est
Motto in English	Knowledge and homeland love are the health of the people
Active	21 September 1551–1865
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Location	Mexico City , New Spain
Campus	Urban

16th century shield present-day on Palacio de la Autonomía

After the Mexican War of Independence it was renamed University of Mexico. When Mexican liberals were in power at intervals in the nineteenth century, it was closed, since liberals sought to put education in the hands of the state rather than the Roman Catholic Church. Its first closure was in 1833, when Valentín Gómez Farías implemented liberal policies. When Antonio López de Santa Anna returned to power, the university was reopened. It was finally abolished in 1865 during the Second Mexican Empire by Maximilian I of Mexico.[3][4] Scattered institutions, including secularized successors of its faculties of law and medicine, other secular colleges founded by liberals on the model of the French grandes ecoles, and religious establishments outside Mexico City, continued without interruption.

In 1910, during the regime of Porfirio Díaz, Justo Sierra merged and expanded Mexico City's decentralized colleges of higher education, founding the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). UNAM is a public university and considered the institutional heir of the earlier original University of Mexico, but under state rather than church control.