A central element in Guatemala's socioeconomic and political changes during the nineteenth century was the nation's principle institution of higher education, the University of San Carlos. After independence, like other universities throughout Latin America, San Carlos became a pawn in the battle between pro-church conservatives and anti-clerical liberals. Mariano Galvez viewed San Carlos as a bastion of conservative values and replaced it with the liberal-oriented Academy of Sciences from 1832 to 1840. With the ascendancy of Rafael Carrera, conservatives resurrected the University Despite the rhetoric of both liberals and conservatives, however, in the thirty years following independence each failed to provide the political and financial stability that would have enabled the University to prosper. Not until Rafael Carrera solidified power in the 1850s and the government promulgated the 1855 University Reform Law did San Carlos finally encounter some semblance of fiscal security. This in turn led to a surge in enrollment, new building projects, and institutional respectability Indeed, the changes initiated in the mid-1850s marked a new era in the University's history. San Carlos thereafter solidified and strengthened its position as a principal force in Guatemalan political and socioeconomic affairs. A new generation of liberals restructured and secularized the institution from 1875 to 1885, emphasizing professional and technical training over philosophy and the humanities. After that point, the University fully entered the twentieth century, and the subsequent period merits another treatment altogether
