Zea, Francisco Antonio

Zea, Francisco Antonio

(fränsēs`kō äntō`nyō sā`ä), 1770–1882, Colombian botanist and revolutionist. He was associated with MutisMutis, José Celestino
, 1732–1808, Spanish naturalist and plant explorer. One of Linnaeus' first disciples in Spain, he went to South America and settled c.1760 in Bogotá.
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 in botanical studies. Zea, like Antonio Nariño, was arrested (1795) for distributing copies of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and was for a time imprisoned in Spain. He returned to aid Bolívar in the liberation of South America. After becoming (1819) vice president of Venezuela, he resigned and accepted the presidency of the Congress of Angostura (see Ciudad BolívarCiudad Bolívar
, city (1990 pop. 225,340), capital of Bolívar state, E Venezuela, an inland port on the Orinoco River. It is the commercial center of the eastern llanos, the Orinoco basin, and the Guiana Highlands.
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) and was later vice president of Greater Colombia. Appointed special diplomatic agent to Europe, he was not highly successful; he negotiated disadvantageous loans and gained recognition of his country only from the United States. He died in Bath, England. Zea wrote a history of Colombia and works on botany.