The Mexican statesman Lucas Alamán (1792-1853) was the leading spokesman and theorist for the Conservative party. He is also one of Mexico's major historians, especially of the 19th century, although his works were written to justify the Conservative position.

Lucas Alamán was born in Guanajuato on Oct. 18, 1792, of an aristocratic family, which owed its fortune to the district's silver mines. He attended the Mexico City College of Mining. In 1810 he witnessed the sack of Guanajuato by rebels under Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, and much of his conservative sentiment stemmed from his vivid memory of this event. He studied in Europe from 1814 to 1820, principally in Spain and France.

Alamán was a member of the Mexican delegation to the Spanish Cortes from 1821 to 1823, and upon his return to Mexico he was installed as minister of foreign relations, serving until 1825. The short, stout, spectacled...