Alamán enjoyed a good education and demonstrated a cosmopolitan outlook. After attending an amiga nursing school in Guanajuato during the 1790s, he became involved in his family’s mining business. Afterwards, he studied at the Real Colegio de Minas de la Nueva España, in the Viceroyalty of New Spain (colonial México). In 1814 Alamán traveled to Spain and began touring other European nations shortly thereafter, studying German mining techniques as well as chemistry in Paris. Upon his return to Mexico, the viceroy appointed him to direct the health services provided by the Junta de Sanidad. As the Marquis of San Clemente, Alamán undoubtedly dreamed of becoming a minister in the court of a Mexican Bourbon monarch. He frequently traveled on his credentials as a scientist and diplomat, becoming one of the most educated men in Mexico.