[citation needed] Francisco Antonio Zea was born in Medellín on 2 November 1766, the son of Don Pedro Rodríguez de Zea Casafus, and María Rosalia Ignacia Díaz Peláez, both of whose paternal family hailed from Spain while their respective maternal sides were from well established Criollo Paisa families.

[2] While in the Real Colegio y Seminario de Popayán, he wrote his treatise "Hebephilo," for the Papel Periodico inviting young men to the study of nature.

Following his exile from New Granada, and the subsequent time he spent in a scientific mission in France, he was appointed director of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid upon his return to Spain in 1803.

Zea was a common discussant on political matters along with other heroes of Colombian independence, many of whom like him had attended school in the Seminary in Popayán and later moved on to Santafé, like Camilo Torres, and Francisco José de Caldas.

Zea appealed the conditions and reasons of his arrest, and managed to obtain royal authorization for his reinstatement to the Botanical Expedition and the payment of his missed salaries while in prison.

[3] He was also appointed director of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid, a very prestigious scientific position for an American, particularly for one who had been in jail a few years earlier.

The new king selected was Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's elder brother, under whose authority Zea entered Spain and who shortly afterwards named him prefect at Málaga.

[6] The signs of internal division began showing soon after as Venezuelans did not want to be ruled by a Neogranadine for they thought of themselves as independent of the new nation, in the end it proved too much as Zea was confronted with a lot of opposition from the Venezuelan armed forces who did not want to be commanded by a civilian, let alone a Neogranadine forcing Zea to step down on 7 September 1819, however he remained a member of congress.

On 17 December 1819, the Congress of Angostura passed the Constitution of 1819 which officially created the First Republic of Colombia, a country made of 3 departments: Venezuela, Cundinamarca, and Quito.

As Plenipotentiary Minister in the Exterior, Zea was tasked with obtaining financial help from the British, as well as restoring the image of the American colonies following the independence war.

Zea was able to get support for the independentist cause from many of sympathetic Brits who called themselves Friends of South American Independence, among them some notable figures like the general Gregor MacGregor; Edward Adolphus St Maur, 11th Duke of Somerset; Sir James Mackintosh; Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 3rd Marquess of Lansdowne; William Wilberforce; Sir Benjamin Hobhouse; John Diston Powles, and various other members of the British Parliament, who on 10 July 1822 at the City of London Tavern had given him a dinner party in his honour and that of Colombia's as a way to show support and raise that much needed credit for Colombia.

Death found Francisco Antonio Zea after a dropsy crisis at the age of 56 on 28 November 1822, at the Royal York House Hotel, in Bath, Somerset, England, where he had gone to take refuge in the famous hot springs.

Such is the life of this young Creole, a botany and human rights enthusiast, who was one of the pioneers of Colombian and Venezuelan independence, a scholar noted for his scientific work and whose descendants, curiously enough, are all French.