The Christian cross

The cross is an ancient magical sign and decorative motif known in many parts of the world, but today it is universally recognized as the symbol of Christianity. In the 3rd century Christian communities began to use cross-like emblems, such as an anchor with a crosspiece or a human figure with outstretched arms. A breakthrough came in 326 when St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine, was said to have discovered the cross on which Christ was crucified. This stimulated an increase in the devotion of the faithful and led to the cross being gradually introduced as a symbol of martyrdom, resurrection, redemption and salvation.  From the 9th century to the end of the 12th century a metal cross on the top of a mast was the only device marking merchant ships in northern Europe. Later the cross became the most common charge of the merchant ensigns of cities and countries in both northern and southern Europe, for example Cologne, Riga, Gdansk, Konigsberg, Geneva and Marseilles. The oldest flags with a cross are those of Portugal and the Kingdom of Jerusalem. From 1140 to 1185 the Portuguese flag was white with a blue cross, and from 1185 to 1250 it was white with a cross made of five blue shields; this latter arrangement remains to this day in the centre of the coat of arms of Portugal. The flag of the Kingdom of Jerusalem under King Amalrich (1162-1173) displayed five golden crosses on a white field.

Other flags and ensigns dating from the 13th and 14th centuries are charged with a simple cross including the Teutonic Order, England, France, Denmark or Savoy.  Until the 14th century the centre of the cross corresponded with the centre of the flag. Denmark was the first to position the cross in such way that the parts of the field between the arms of the cross formed squares hoist and rectangles in the fly. This example was followed by Sweden (1569), Norway (1821), Iceland (1915), Finland (1918) and the Faroe Islands (1919). Thus a large sub-family, called the Scandinavian cross, came into being. In various forms, the Christian cross also appears on the flags and ensigns of nations in other parts of the world. It is a charge of the flags of Dominica and the Dominican Republic.

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The Muslim crescent

The crescent is one of the oldest symbols known to humanity. Together with the sun, it appeared on Akkadian seals as early as 2300 BC and from at least the second millennium BC it was the symbol of the Mesopotamian moon gods Nanna in Sumer and Sin in Babylonia. The crescent was well known in the Middle East and was transplanted by the Phoenicians in the 8th century as far as Carthage (now in Tunisia). In the 12th century it was adopted by the Turks and since then the crescent, often accompanied by a star, has been the main symbol of Islam. Since then the widespread use of the crescent on flags in that region was noticeable. The Kings of Damascus and Lucha, Cairo, Tunis and the Ottoman Empire all used flags with a crescent. From 16th to 18th century Ottoman Empire’s flag is usually shown with three white crescents; in 1793 the number of crescents was reduced to one and an eight-pointed star was added. After the rule of the Ottoman Empire ended, Turkey was the only Muslim state regarded as a world power. Its flag was known from West Africa to the Far East, and helped to popularize the crescent and star among the Muslim populations of many countries of Asia and Africa.

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The Union Jack

Until the early 17th century and since the 13th century the English flag and jack, used by both merchant and navy ships, had been white with the red cross of St George. The Scottish flag was blue with the white cross of St Andrew. Then, on 12th April 1606 King James I of England and Scotland issued a proclamation that all ships should use both flags joined together. This was the birth of what soon became the best-known flag in the world. When the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland came into existence on 1st January 1801, a red saltire called the cross of St Patrick was chosen to represent Ireland. In 1864 and Admiralty order assigned the white ensign exclusively to the Royal Naval Service, red became “the national colour of all British ships”, and blue would be carried by all vessels employed in the service of any public office. The use of the blue ensign was extended in 1865 and allowed all vessels belonging to, or permanently in, the service of the Colonies to use this ensign with the seal or badge of the colony in the fly. This Act made possible the enormous future growth in the number of flags with the Union Jack in the canton. More than 100 colonial ensigns have been in use during the last century and some of them, such as those of Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Tuvalu, became after some alteration the national flags of independent countries.

 

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The Stars and Stripes

From the end of the 15th century North America was colonized by British settlers and the best-known flag was the British red ensign, which in America was also used on land. It was only natural that it should influence the design of the United States flag, often called the Stars and Stripes or Star-spangled Banner. The first American flag was the merchant ensign, introduced in 1775. It consisted solely of 13 red and white stripes. The flag hoisted in 1776 by the Continental Army also had 13 red and white stripes, with the Union Jack in the canton. In 1777 the resolution of the Continental Congress replaced the Union Jack with the star filled blue canton. 13 stripes symbolized the rebellion of the 13 colonies against British rule.

The growth of the Union posed the question of how the new states should be represented in the flag. On 4th April 1818 it was decided that a new star will be added to the flag on the admission of every new state into the Union. Thirteen stripes will remain the symbol of the secession of the 13 colonies that formed the United States of America.

The first country to adopt a similar flag to the American one was Hawaii. Other countries adopted flags inspired by the American design to manifest their adherence to republican ideals of liberty and democracy. These countries included Chile (1817), Uruguay (1828), Cuba (1850) and Puerto Rico (1891).

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The Dutch and pan-Slav colours

Orange, white and blue were the livery colours of William I, Price of Orange (1533-1584). Armbands in these colours were worn by his soldiers at the siege of Leiden in 1574, and in the 1580s they were used on the horizontal tricolour of the ensign and the flag used on land. Thus was created the first modern flag, displaying simple stripes instead of heraldic devices. The original tricolour survived until 1795 when the orange was officially replaced by red.

The Dutch flag had a great impact on the flags of the Slav nations in central and southern Europe. It was a model for the merchant flag of Russia, personally designed in 1699 by Tsar Peter the Great (1672-1725). The white-blue-red became the national flag of Russia and, in turn, inspired other Slav countries to adopt horizontal tricolours displaying the same colours in different arrangements. In 1835 the Serbs were the first to adopt a red-blue-white tricolour for their ships on inland waters. In 1848, during the first pan-Slav Congress in Prague, these were proclaimed the pan-Slav colours and were adopted of horizontal tricolours by several Slav provinces of Austria. The Slovaks and Slovenes placed the colours in the same order as Russia, the Serbs adopted a blue-red-white tricolour and the Croats positioned the colours as in the Dutch flag. The flag adopted by Bulgaria in 1878 was the same as that of Russia, the only difference being the substitution of green for the blue. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, established in 1918, adopted a national flag and ensign in the form of a horizontal blue-white-red tricolour, which remained unchanged when the name of the country was changed to Yugoslavia. A somewhat different flag belonging to this family is that of Czech Republic (and former Czechoslovakia).

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The French Tricolore

The colours red, blue and white have been successively used on French flags from the time of Charlemagne. Red was the imperial flag from the 9th century; blue was the field of the armorial banner of France from the 13th century to 1589, and of the merchant ensign from 1661 to 1790;and white was the French flag and ensign from 1589 to 1790. Nevertheless, it is surprisingly only a coincidence that these three colours appear together on the French national flag; they are, in fact, the colours of the coat of arms of the city of Paris, combined with the white of the Bourbons.

On 13th July 1789, on the eve of the French Revolution, the Paris militia were given blue and red cockades. Four days later in the City Hall the marquis de Lafayette presented a similar cockade to King Louis XVI, who attached it to the royal white one. The leaders of the Revolution approved the Marquis’ proposal to adopt the cockade in the “colours of liberty”. The new cockade was received enthusiastically by the people and in the following days the streets of Paris were full of ribbons and flags in the “colours of liberty” in various arrangements.

In spite of this fervour, the official flag and ensign remained unchanged. The addition of a tricolour streamer to the war ensign in 1790 did not satisfy the rebellious sailors, who demanded the introduction of a new one displaying the colours that were already perceived as the national ones. The ensign that was subsequently adopted on 24th October 1790 was white with the canton composed of red-white-blue vertical tricolour and a white border separating in from the outer border which was half red and half blue. The vertical arrangement of three colours was revolutionary, both geometrically and politically. The order of colours was changed to the present one on 15th February 1794.

A few decades after the French Revolution the colours of the Tricolore, as the flag is called, were perceived in Europe and elsewhere as the colours of the republican movement. Even more influential was the Tricolore design introduced by Napoleon in some Italian states. This later inspired revolutionaries and leaders of independence movements in many parts of the world. Countries that adopted flags with a vertical arrangements of colours include Haiti (1804), Mexico (1815), Belgium (1831), Ireland (1848), Italy (1848) and Romania (1867). The next large addition to the family of vertical tricolours came in the second half of the 20th century, when many former French colonies in Africa adopted flags following the Tricolore design.

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The livery colours

The simplest national flags, introduced by several European countries during the last two centuries, are those composed of livery colours arranged in two or three horizontal stripes. In most cases the upper stripe is in the colour of a heraldic charge, while the lower stripe displays the colour of the shield. When translating coats of arms into flags, gold becomes yellow and silver becomes white. The only exception to this rule is the German flag, called Schwarz-Rot-Gold (black-red-gold), which has golden yellow stripe instead of yellow.

National flags in livery colours were most widespread in central Europe, especially in German states and parts of Austria-Hungary.

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The pan-Arab colours

The early Arab flags were of one colour, often charged with religious inscriptions. Biographers of the Prophet Muhammad ascribe to him two flags, one black and one white. His followers are said to have fought under the white flag for seven years and with this flag they entered Mecca. White was also the colour of the Muslim dynasty of the Umayyads, the immediate successors of the Prophet and an influential family of the Quarish tribe to which he belonged. Under a white flag the Umayyads ruled the Muslim Empire from AD 661 to 750 and were Muslim rulers of Spain from AD 756 to 1031. Black, the second colour used by Muhammad, was the colour of the Abbasid dynasty that overthrew the Umayyads and ruled the Muslim Empire from AD 750 to 1258.

Green, perceived as the colour of Islam, was the traditional colour of the Fatimid dynasty of caliphs, which ruled in North Africa from AD 909 to 1171. The Fatimids were leaders of the Ismaili sect and claimed descent from Fatima, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Red is the colour of the Hashemites, descendants of Hashim, the grat-grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad, and for centuries the hereditary amirs of Mecca.

In 1911 a group of young Arabs met in the Literary Club in Istanbul to choose a design for a modern Arab flag, and decided it should be composed of these four colours – white (deeds), black (battles), green (fields) and red (knives). In 1914the central comitee of the Young Arab Society in Beirut declared that the flag of the future independent Arab state should display the colours of the Umayyads (white), Abbasids (black) and Fatimids (green). However, the Arab Revolt began in Hejaz on 10 June 1916 under a plain red flag, traditional for that area. Several months later Sharif Hussein, leader of the revolt, accepted suggestions to adopt the colours white, black and green, and added red, a symbol of his family. The flag was hoisted on 30 May 1917, a day that might be considered the birthday of the pan-Arab colours.

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After the revolution of 1952 in Egypt, the young officers who abolished the monarchy introduced the Arab Liberation Flag, a horizontal red-white-black tricolour, which symbolized the period of oppression (black), overcome through bloody struggle (red), to be replaced by a bright future (white). This flag was the inspiration for the flags of several  Arab nations which chose the republican political system, so it could be considered to be the first of the second generation of pan-Arab colours.

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The pan-African colours

Two factors have influenced the choice of colours for the flags of independent countries south of Sahara. The first, and main, source of inspiration was the green, yellow, red flag of Ethiopia, the oldest independent state in Africa. The second was the red, black and green flag designed in 1971 by Marcus Garvey, the organizer of the first important black unification movement in the United States. He created the flag for the United Negro Improvement Association, but wanted it to become the national flag of a new unified black state he dreamt of creating.

In 1957 Ghana became the first independent country in western Africa to adopt a flag in ‘Ethiopian’ colours. The first country in Africa to adopt Garvey’s colours as its main flag colours was Kenya in 1963, followed by Malawi one year later. In both flags the black stands for the people, the red symbolizes the blood shed in the struggle for independence, and the green represents the land with its fertile fields and forests.

 

Examples (Ethiopian): Ethiopia, Ghana, Cameroun, Togo

Examples (Garvey’s): Kenya, Malawi

 

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The Red Banner

A red flag has been used as a flag of defiance since the beginning of the 17th century, but its real role as a revolutionary flag began in 1830 in France, and during the Revolution of 1848 the mob in Paris even wanted it to be the national flag. It was again use by the Paris Commune of 1870, and soon after became the flag associated with the socialist movement. It then appeared during the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, and in 1918, with the addition of golden initials, was adopted by the Russian Republic. In 1924 a red flag featuring a red star and the hammer and sickle (the crossed tools of workers and peasants) became the national flag of the Soviet Union. Soon the red star and the hammer and sickle were regarded as the symbols of communism, appearing also on the flags of the Soviet republics. After the Second World War the Soviet Union installed communist regimes in central and eastern Europe but their national flags were retained.

 

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Smaller Flag Families

Two smaller flag families of regional character came into being in the first quarter of the 19th century during the struggle for liberation of Latin America from Spanish rule.

The famous Venezuelan revolutionary, Francisco de Miranda, personally designed a horizontal tricolour that symbolized golden America (yellow) separated by the Atlantic Ocean (blue) from bloody Spain (red). It was hoisted for the first time on 4th August 1806 on Colombian soil and, despite the defeat of the revolutionary forces, was not forgotten. So, when Venezuela formally declared independence, a flag in these colours with the yellow the same width as both of the other stripes became the national flag on 5th June 1811. Miranda’s forces finally became victorious in 1821. The Venezuelans joined with the victorious Creoles of neighbouring Colombia and Ecuador to form the Republic of Gran Colombia under the same flag. When this fell apart in 1830, Venezuela retained the flag, which with minor modifications is still in use. For a few decades Ecuador and Colombia used flags of different designs but they restored Miranda’s tricolour in 1860 and 1861 respectively.

 

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The second of the Latin American flag families encompasses the flags of Argentina and five states of Central America: El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Costa Rica. In May 1810 blue and white colours were adopted by the revolutionaries in Buenos Aires and a blue-white-blue flag was hoisted by general Belgrano in Rosario on 27th February 1812, and formally adopted by the Argentine government on 25th July 1816. The flag became known in Central America when Loius Aury led a maritime expedition there in 1816 and six years later Manuel Jose Arce, commander general of the province of San Salvador, decided to adopt the “Argentinian colours of Belgrano” as the national flag of San Salvador. It was consecrated on 20th February 1822 and a year later served as a model for the flag of the newly created United Provinces of Central America. After the dissolution of the state in 1838, the five countries used various flags. The first to restore the blue-white-blue flag was Nicaragua in 1854, followed by El Salvador in 1865. Costa Rica added a wide red stripe (1848), Honduras added five blue stars (1866) and finally Guatemala arranged the colours vertically (1871).

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