the battlefields of Pavia and Marengo and headed towards Milan, passing through Bologna and Florence 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. He next visited Switzerland and followed the Rhine to Frankfurt. Alaman studied mining in Germany and visited Berlin before departing towards Holland and returning to France by 1818. Delegate to the Cortes 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 of separating silver and gold through the use of sulfuric acid in contrast to the old technique of using nitric acid. He traveled to Madrid and succeeded in gaining permission from the government for doing so. Alaman arrived back in Mexico in February, 1820. Spain at this time through the Constitution of 1812 had granted representation to its colonies in the Spanish Cortes and Alaman was among the Mexican deputies sent to Madrid that year representing the province of Guanajuato. He left for Spain with the rest of the deputies just as Agustin de Iturbide’s Plan of Iguala began to gain ground, and which would ultimately gain independence for Mexico in September of 1821. Alaman 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. After the legislative session ended, Alaman rejected a post in the Spanish government and returned to Mexico. First Mexican Republic Alaman was administering his family’s mining interests during which he witnessed the fall of the First Mexican Empire and the establishment of the provisional government known as the Supreme Executive Power. Due to his experience in the Spanish Cortes, the Executive Power named Alaman as the Minister of the Interior and the Exterior. Alaman established a national archive and of a national museum. He allotted funds to the dying San Carlos Academy of Fine Arts, and saved from destruction the Equestrian statue of Charles IV of Spain, which still surives to this day in Mexico City. He also hid the remains of Hernán Cortés, which were threatened by the popular anti-Spanish fury that erupted in the wake of