National flag

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A national flag is a

citizens. A national flag is typically designed with specific meanings for its colours and symbols, which may also be used separately from the flag as a symbol of the nation. The design of a national flag is sometimes altered after the occurrence of important historical events. The burning or destruction of a national flag
is a greatly symbolic act.

History

See also: Timeline of national flags and History of flags

Historically, flags originated as

Viking chieftains. Angelino Dulcert published a series of comprehensive Portolan charts
in the 14th century AD, which famously showcased the flags of several polities depicted – although these are not uniformly "national flags", as some were likely the personal standards of the respective nation's rulers.

The practice of flying flags indicating the country of origin outside of the context of warfare became common with the

tricolour flag in continuous use, although standardisation of the exact colours is of a much later date.[1][2]

During the

Cross of St. Patrick. It continued in use until 1 January 1801, the effective date of the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland, when the Cross of St. Patrick (a red diagonal cross on white) was incorporated into the flag,[4]
giving the Union Jack its current design.

With the emergence of

Republic in the 1790s.[6]

Most

countries of Europe standardised and codified the designs of their maritime flags as national flags, in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The specifications of the flag of Denmark, based on a flag that was in continuous use since the 14th-century, were codified in 1748, as a rectangular flag with certain proportions, replacing the variant with a split.[7] The flag of Switzerland
was introduced in 1889, also based on medieval war flags.

The first Italian flag brought to Florence by Francesco Saverio Altamura (1859)

In Europe, the red-white-blue tricolour design of the

Spanish Crown. That association was greatly reinforced after the French Revolution (1789), when France used the same colours, but with vertical instead of horizontal stripes. Other countries in Europe (like Ireland, Italy, Romania and Estonia) and in South and Central America selected tricolours of their own to express their adherence to the principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity as embodied in the French flag.[8]

Brazilian flag
being embroidered by a family.

The Ottoman flag (now the flag of Turkey) was adopted in 1844. Other non-European powers followed the trend in the late 19th century, the flag of Great Qing being introduced in 1862, that of Japan being introduced in 1870. Also in the 19th century, most

countries of South America introduced a flag as they became independent (Peru in 1820, Bolivia in 1851, Colombia in 1860, Brazil
in 1822, etc.)

Currently, there are 193 national flags in the world flown by

sovereign states that are members of the United Nations
.

Process of adoption

The national flag is often mentioned or described in a country's

secondary legislation or in monarchies a decree
.

Thus, the national flag is mentioned briefly in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany of 1949 "the federal flag is black-red-gold" (art. 22.2 Die Bundesflagge ist schwarz-rot-gold), but its proportions were regulated in a document passed by the government in the following year. The Flag of the United States is not defined in the constitution but rather in a separate Flag Resolution passed in 1777.

Minor design changes of national flags are often passed on a legislative or executive level, while substantial changes have constitutional character. The design of the

Flag Act of 1818 to the effect that "on the admission of every new state into the Union, one star be added to the union of the flag"; it was changed most recently in 1960 with the accession of Hawaii
.

A change in national flag is often due to a change of regime, especially following a

form of government, monarchy vs. republic vs. theocracy, etc.) remains visible. In such cases national flags acquire the status of a political symbol
.

The

Libyan Civil War in 2011 and officially adopted by the Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration
.

Usage

There are three distinct types of national flag for use on land, and three for use at sea, though many countries use identical designs for several (and sometimes all) of these types of flag.

On land

On land, there is a distinction between civil flags (FIAV symbol ), state flags (), and war or military flags (). Civil flags may be flown by anyone regardless of whether they are linked to government, whereas state flags are those used officially by government agencies. War flags (also called military flags) are used by military organizations such as Armies, Marine Corps, or Air Forces.

In practice, many countries (such as the United States and the United Kingdom) have identical flags for these three purposes; national flag is sometimes used as a vexillological term to refer to such a three-purpose flag (). In a number of countries, however, and notably those in Latin America, there is a distinct difference between civil and state flags. In most cases, the civil flag is a simplified version of the state flag, with the difference often being the presence of a coat of arms on the state flag that is absent from the civil flag.

Very few countries use a war flag that differs from the state flag.

China are notable examples of this. Swallow-tailed flags are used as war flags and naval ensigns in Nordic countries and charged versions as presidential or royal standards. The Philippines does not have a distinctive war flag in this usual sense, but the flag of the Philippines
is legally unique in that it is flown with the red stripe on top when the country is in a state of war, rather than the conventional blue.

At sea

The flag that indicates nationality on a ship is called an

Maritime flags
.) National flags may also be flown by aircraft and the land vehicles of important officials. In the case of aircraft, those flags are usually painted on, and those are usually to be painted on in the position as if they were blowing in the wind.

In some countries, such as the

blue ensign for government non-military vessels. Italian naval ensign bears the arms of the Italian Navy: a shield, surmounted by a turreted and rostrum crown, which brings together in four parts the arms of four ancient maritime republics (Republic of Venice, Republic of Genoa, Republic of Pisa and Republic of Amalfi
).

Protocol

Main article: Flag protocol
Kijŏng-dong ("Peace village") near Panmunjom, the border of North Korea and South Korea
.

There is a great deal of protocol involved in the proper display of national flags. A general rule is that the national flag should be flown in the position of honour, and not in an inferior position to any other flag (although some countries make an exception for royal standards). The following rules are typical of the conventions when flags are flown on land:

Hanging a flag vertically

Most flags are hung vertically by rotating the flag pole. However, some countries have specific protocols for this purpose or even have special flags for vertical hanging; usually rotating some elements of the flag — such as the coat of arms — so that they are seen in an upright position.[9]

Examples of countries that have special protocol for vertical hanging are: Canada, Czech Republic, Greece, Israel, the Philippines, South Africa, and the United States (reverse always showing); and the United Kingdom (obverse always showing).

Examples of countries that have special designs for vertical hanging are: Austria, Cambodia (coat of arms must be rotated 90° and blue strips are narrowed), Dominica (coat of arms must be rotated and reverse always showing), Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein (crown must be rotated 90°), Mexico, Montenegro (coat of arms must be rotated 90° to normal position), Nepal, Slovakia (coat of arms must be rotated 90° to normal position), and Saudi Arabia (shahada must be rotated 90°). A vertical banner is used instead of the horizontal flag for Malaysia.

Design

The flag of Nepal is the only national flag which is not a quadrilateral.

The art and practice of designing flags is known as vexillography. The design of national flags has seen a number of customs become apparent.

Most national flags are rectangular, or have a rectangular common variant, with the most notable exception being the

ratios of height to width vary among national flags, but none is taller than it is wide, again except for the flag of Nepal. The flags of Switzerland and the Vatican City
are the only national flags which are exact squares.

The obverse and reverse of all national flags are either identical or mirrored, except for the

Flags whose reverse differs from the obverse
for a list of exceptions including non-national flags.

As of 2011 all national flags consist of at least two different colours. In many cases, the different colours are presented in either horizontal or vertical bands. It is particularly common for colours to be presented in bands of three.

The Cambodian flag features a depiction of Angkor Wat in the center, a temple historically associated with both Hinduism and Buddhism.[10]

It is common for many flags to feature national symbols, such as coats of arms. National patterns are present in some flags. Variations in design within a national flag can be common in the flag's upper left quarter, or canton. A third of the world's 196 countries currently have national flags that include religious symbols.[10] This has led to controversy in some secular states in regard to the separation of church and state, when the national symbol is officially sanctioned by a government.[11]

Colours

For a more comprehensive list, see List of flags by color and List of flags by color combination.
Distribution of colours in national flags

The most popular colours in national flags are red, white, green, dark blue, yellow, light blue, and black.[12] The only national flag not to include the colors red, white, or blue is Jamaica's.[13] The occurrence of each colour in all the flags is listed in detail in the table below.[12] The table shows that the colours light brown, dark brown and grey only occur in very small quantities. In fact, they only occur in the symbols on flags, such as in the Spanish flag.

Colour Percentage of Flags Count of flags
red 76.14% 150
white 71.57% 141
blue 51.78% 102
yellow/gold 45.18% 89
green 44.67% 88
black 30.46% 60
orange 4.57% 9
brown 4.06% 8
gray 3.05% 6
purple 1.52% 3

Similarities

Blue, yellow and red striped flags
Flags from top left to bottom right:
Chad, Romania, Andorra and Moldova

Although the national flag is meant to be a unique symbol for a country, many pairs of countries have highly similar flags. Examples include the flags of Monaco and Indonesia, which differ only slightly in proportion and the tint of red; the flags of the Netherlands and Luxembourg, which differ in proportion as well as in the tint of blue used; the flags of Romania and Chad, which differ only in the tint of blue, and the flags of Cuba and Puerto Rico, which differ only in proportion, placement and tint of colors.

Flag of Cuba with 1:2 proportion
Flag of Puerto Rico with 2:3 proportion

The flags of Ireland and Ivory Coast and the flags of Mali and Guinea are (aside from shade or ratio differences) vertically mirrored versions from each other. This means that the reverse of one flag matches the obverse of the other. Unlike horizontally mirrored flags (like Poland and Indonesia) the direction in which these flags fly is crucial to identify them.

Image showing many similar flags

There are three colour combinations that are used on several flags in certain regions. Blue, white, and red is a

Pan-Arab colours) can be found particularly among the Arab nations such as Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Yemen
.

Comparison of the Italian and Mexican flags

Due to the common arrangement of the same colours, at first sight, it seems that the only difference between the Italian and the Mexican flag is only the coat of arms of Mexico present in the latter; in reality the Italian tricolour uses lighter shades of green and red, and has different proportions than the Mexican flag—those of the Italian flag are equal to 2:3, while the proportions of the Mexican flag are 4:7.[14] The similarity between the two flags posed a serious problem in maritime transport, given that originally the Mexican mercantile flag was devoid of arms and therefore was consequently identical to the Italian Republican tricolour of 1946; to obviate the inconvenience, at the request of the International Maritime Organization, both Italy and Mexico adopted naval flags with different crests.[15]

Many other similarities may be found among current national flags, particularly if inversions of colour schemes are considered, e.g., compare the flag of Senegal to that of Cameroon and Indonesia to Poland and Monaco. Also the flag of Italy and the flag of Hungary use the same colours, although the order and direction differ (the Italian flag is vertical green-white-red and the Hungarian flag is horizontal red-white-green). The same goes for the flag of France and the flag of the Netherlands (the French flag is vertical blue-white-red and the Dutch flag is horizontal red-white-blue).

Flag families

Main article: Flag families

While some similarities are coincidental, others are rooted in shared histories, known as a flag family. For example, the flags of

Nordic Cross design (Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, in addition to the autonomous regions of the Faroe Islands and Åland), a horizontal cross shifted to the left on a single-coloured background. The United States and United Kingdom both have red, white, and blue. This similarity is due to the fact that the first 13 states of the U.S. were formerly colonies of the United Kingdom. Some similarities to the United States flag with the red and white stripes are noted as well such as the flag of Malaysia and the flag of Liberia, the latter of which was an American resettlement colony. Also, several former colonies of the United Kingdom, such as Australia, Fiji and New Zealand include the Union Jack
in the top left corner.

See also

Lists of flags
Other

References

  1. ^ "Europe: Netherlands — The World Factbook". CIA. Archived from the original on 30 July 2021. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  2. ^ Worthington, Daryl (17 October 2016). "Why Are So Many Flags Red, White and Blue?". New Historian. Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  3. ^ "flag of the United Kingdom". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 2021-11-08. Retrieved 2021-11-08.
  4. ^ "flag of the United Kingdom". Britannica. Archived from the original on 20 December 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  5. ^ "Flags" in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
  6. ^ "The French flag". Archived from the original on 2008-04-21.
  7. ^ Dannebrog (in Danish). Den Store Danske. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-07-14. Retrieved 2014-06-13.
  8. ^ "flag - National flags". Britannica. Archived from the original on 1 January 2022. Retrieved 1 January 2022.
  9. ^ Nelson, Phil (2005-12-31), Hanging Flags Vertically, Flags of the World, archived from the original on 2010-12-17, retrieved 2011-02-20.
  10. ^ a b Theodorou, Angelina E. "64 countries have religious symbols on their national flags". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  11. ^ "64 countries have religious symbols on their national flags".
  12. ^
    doi:10.1002/col.21853
    .
  13. ^ "What Do the Colors and Symbols of the Flag of Jamaica Mean?". World Atlas. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
  14. ^ "Bandiera Messico" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 18 January 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  15. ^ "La bandiera Italiana" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2016.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to National flags of countries.
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