Lucas Alamán | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations of Mexico | |
| In office 20 April – 2 June 1853 | |
| President | Antonio López de Santa Anna |
| Preceded by | José Miguel Arroyo |
| Succeeded by | José Miguel Arroyo |
| In office 12 January 1830 – 20 May 1832 | |
| President | Anastasio Bustamante |
| Preceded by | Manuel Ortiz de la Torre |
| Succeeded by | José María Ortiz Monasterio |
| In office 12 January 1825 – 26 September 1825 | |
| President | Guadalupe Victoria |
| Preceded by | Juan Guzmán |
| Succeeded by | Manuel Gómez Pedraza |
| In office 15 May – 21 September 1824 | |
| Preceded by | Pablo de La Llave |
| Succeeded by | Juan Guzmán |
| In office 16 April 1823 – 23 April 1824 | |
| Preceded by | José Ignacio García Illueca |
| Succeeded by | Pablo de La Llave |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1792-10-18)18 October 1792 |
| Died | 2 June 1853(1853-06-02) (aged 60) Mexico City, Mexico |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Alma mater | Royal College of Mines |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, historian, politician, scientist, writer |
| Signature |  |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Alamán |
Lucas Ygnacio José Joaquín Pedro de Alcántar Juan Bautista Francisco de Paula de Alamán y Escalada (Guanajuato,New Spain, 18 October 1792 –Mexico City, Mexico, 2 June 1853) was aMexican scientist, conservative statesman, historian, and writer. He came from an eliteGuanajuato family and was well-traveled and highly educated. He was an eyewitness to the early fighting in theMexican War of Independence when he witnessed the troops of insurgent leaderMiguel Hidalgo y Costilla sackGuanajuato City, an incident that informed his already conservative and antidemocratic thought.[1]
He has been called the "arch-reactionary of the epoch...who sought to create a strong central government based on a close alliance of the army, the Catholic Church and the landed classes."[2] He has been considered the founder of theConservative Party. He has been compared toKlemens von Metternich,[3] and was one of the prime voices advocating for the establishment of amonarchy in Mexico.
According to historianCharles A. Hale, Alamán was "undoubtedly the major political and intellectual figure of independent Mexico until his death in 1853 ... the guiding force of several administrations and an active promoter of economic development."[4]
Lucas Alamán was born to a wealthy family ofGuanajuato on October 18, 1792. His father was Juan Vicente Alamán and his mother was Maria Ignacia Escalada.[5] His father had immigrated fromNavarre and accumulated a fortune in mining, while his mother was member of a distinguished American-born Spanish family,[6] and held the title of the fifth marchioness of San Clemente.[7] Alamán's father was his mother's second husband, following the death of her first husband, Brigadier Gabriel de Arechederreta. Alamán had an older sister, María de Luz Estefanuia Anna José Ignacia Alamán y Escalada, born 1782, and an older half-brother, Juan Bautista Arechederreta.
He studied at theamiga, a children's school, run by Dona Josefa Camacho, and continued his studies at the Bethlehem School where Fr. Jose de San Geronimo taught Alamán how to write. In gratitude for the education that was provided, Alamán's father funded a renovation of its building.[8]
Alamán moved on to learn Latin and mathematics, and his father began introducing him to the management of the mining industry, a field in which the elder Alamán expected his son to work in one day.[9] In 1808, a sixteen year old Alamán visited Mexico City where he learned French and then returned to Guanajuato where he continued to study mathematics, music, and drawing, while also reading the Latin classics.[10] The Alamán family was wealthy and socially prominent through Alamán's early youth, but mining was an uncertain and volatile industry, and his father eventually suffered financial losses and died when Alamán was sixteen.[11]
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It was at this time that Alamán would witness decisive historical events that would forever change the future of Mexico. In 1808, the Spanish kingFerdinand VII was deposed byNapoleon who replaced him with his brotherJoseph Bonaparte, sparking a constitutional crisis throughout theSpanish Empire, as rejection of the new king was almost universal. The government ofNew Spain chose to remain loyal to the imprisoned Ferdinand, but an uprising against the Spanish was triggered by the priestMiguel Hidalgo y Costilla on September 16, 1810, a date which would eventually be commemorated as theMexican Independence Day
He witnessed the sack ofGuanajuato after thecapture of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in the early stages of theMexican War of Independence during which the unorganized and ragged troops ofMiguel Hidalgo y Costilla killed those taking refuge inside.[12][13] Alamán fled with his family to Mexico City in December, 1810.[14] At Mexico City he continued his studies in mining. He studied chemistry, mineralogy, calculus, and crystallography. It was amidst his discussions with the well travelled faculty that he also began to desire to travel to Europe where he wished to perfect his French and learn Italian and English.[15]
He departed in January 1814 and first arrived at Spain where he visited Madrid and the Royal Palace of theEl Escorial. He then passed on to France where he arrived in Paris and visitedFather Mier on whose recommendation Alamán was able to meet withBishop Gregoire. He continued his studies in Paris underRené Just Haüy,Jean-Baptiste Biot, andLouis Jacques Thénard, and attended late night sessions of the Atheneum where he also began to learn German.[16] Alamán was present in Paris during Napoleon's return from Elba, during theHundred Days, with Alamán leaving the country shortly afterward for a brief sojourn in Great Britain before returning to France.[17] He next traveled to Italy, passing byMont Cenis, and arriving inTurin. He visited the battlefields ofPavia andMarengo and headed towardsMilan, passing throughBologna andFlorence before arriving in Rome where he was present for the Feast day of St. Peter which he spent with the family of the Spanish Cardinal Bardaji.[17] He next visitedSwitzerland and followed theRhine toFrankfurt. Alamán studied mining inGermany and visitedBerlin before departing towards Holland and returning to France by 1818.[18]
He received the news that one of his family's financial interests had failed, and sought to remedy the matter through the application of his studies. He sought to bring to Mexico the technique ofseparating silver and gold through the use ofsulfuric acid in contrast to the old technique of usingnitric acid. He traveled toMadrid and succeeded in gaining permission from the government for doing so.[19] He was the delegate of Mexico in the Cortes and worked to better the mining industry.[20]
Alamán arrived back in Mexico in February, 1820. Spain at this time through theConstitution of 1812 had granted representation to its colonies in the Spanish Cortes and Alamán was among the Mexican deputies sent to Madrid that year representing the province ofGuanajuato.[21] He left for Spain with the rest of the deputies just asAgustin de Iturbide’sPlan of Iguala began to gain ground, and which would ultimately gain independence for Mexico in September 1821.[22]
Alamán defended the rights of his district's mining interests and amidst ambiguous news regarding the progress of the Plan of Iguala, he also with the rest of the deputies lobbied the Spanish Cortes to establish in New Spain a more independent government.[23] After the legislative session ended, Alamán rejected a post in the Spanish government and returned to Mexico.[24]
Alamán was administering his family's mining interests during which he witnessed the fall of theFirst Mexican Empire and the establishment of the provisional government known as theSupreme Executive Power. Due to his experience in the Spanish Cortes, the Executive Power named Alamán as the Minister of the Interior and the Exterior.[25] Alamán established a national archive and also a national museum. He allotted funds to the dyingSan Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, and saved from destruction theEquestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain, which still survives to this day in Mexico City. He also hid the remains ofHernán Cortés, which were threatened by the popular anti-Spanish fury that erupted in the wake of independence.[26] Alamán was named Minister of State in 1825[27] and succeeded in attracting British capital to Mexico.[28] But he was ousted from government in less than a year.[27]
He was part of the group of conservatives who ousted insurgent generalVicente Guerrero from the presidency, who himself came to power by coup in 1829. Alamán was a member of thetriumvirate that briefly governed Mexico in 1829 after thePlan de Jalapa with the aim of installing conservativeAnastasio Bustamante as president. Alamán was the leading figure of the conservatives as the regime change unfolded.[29] Guerrero was captured by a merchant ship captain Picaluga paid 50,000 pesos for the deed, in January 1831, summarily tried in a court-martial, and executed a month later. Alamán viewed the execution of Guerrero as saving Mexico from "dissolution."[30] Many Mexicans, however, saw Guerrero as a martyr and his execution was deemed by the liberal newspaperEl Federalista Mexicano "judicial murder." The two conservative cabinet members considered most culpable for Guerrero's execution, Alamán and Secretary of WarJosé Antonio Facio "spent the rest of their lives defending themselves from the charge that they were responsible for the ultimate betrayal in the history of the first republic, that is, that they had arranged not just for the service of Picaluga's ship but specifically for his capture of Guerrero."[31] Alamán published a tract defending himself, drafted while in hiding in Mexico City.[32] He also had many issues with the United States during this time.[20]
Alamán returned to the post of Minister of Interior and Exterior Relations in 1830–1832 under the Bustamante government. It was in this capacity that he namedManuel Victoria theGovernor of Alta California on March 8, 1830. In October 1830, he created theBanco Nacional de Avío, the first bank in Mexico, which provided the country with the financial infrastructure necessary for its burgeoning economy.[33] Through this government investment bank, Alamán's plans to revive the textile industry, which took hold and prospered in Puebla and Veracruz even when Alamán was not part of the government.[34]
After what he saw as the disaster ofTexas independence from Mexico in 1836, Alamán largely retired from politics, though he continued to promote what he saw as the interests of the country by serving asDirector de la Junta de Fomento de la Industria (Directorate for the Promotion of Industry) from 1839 until his death in 1853.
During the same period Alamán negotiated a deal with the United States to the north fixing the national borders of the two nations which held right up to the time of theMexican–American War 1846–1848. He also promotedcolonizing the northern provinces in order to stave off U.S.expansionism.
For most of the 1840s, he devoted himself primarily to writing the history of Mexico from the perspective of a conservative. His three-volume workDisertaciones sobre la Historia de la Republica mexicana (Mexico, 1844–1849) and his five-volumeHistoria de México, desde los primeros movimientos que prepararon su independencia en el año de 1808, hasta la época presente (Mexico, 1849–1852), stand as the major intellectual productions of the Conservative Party in nineteenth-century Mexico, and the only histories produced by a Mexican author of his era to view the Spanish presence in his country favorably.[citation needed]
Among his more important actions are the creation of the Natural History Museum inMexico City and the foundation of Mexico'sGeneral National Archive. The latter has been very important for learning about the historical events in Mexico and understanding the political processes of the Mexican Republic. He also founded and ran a mining company, established the first metal foundry in independent Mexico in 1825, administered the estates of the descendants ofHernán Cortés, and served as president of the Mexico Cityayuntamiento (city council) in 1849.
Although Alamán was in general anti-American, he was dismayed by the withdrawal of the U.S. Army, which had protected property against "bandits and rebels."[35]
Santa Anna and Lucas Alamán were in correspondence during Santa Anna's exile following the debacle of theMexican American War. Alamán helped pave the way for Santa Anna's return to power with conservative support "if he agreed to a program of cessation of political activity against the Church and security for the holders of large propertied interests."[36] Alamán returned to national public service in March 1853, when Santa Anna appointed him Minister of Foreign Relations. He is also known for a few things he wrote:Disertaciones sobre la historia de la república mejicana as well as Historia de México.[20] Alamán served until his death frompneumonia on June 2, 1853.
Ynsfran, Pablo Max. "Catalogo del Archivo de Don Lucas Alamán que se Conserva en la Universidad de Texas, Austin"Historia MexicanaVol. 4, No. 2 (Oct. – Dec. 1954), pp. 281–316
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