The Evolution of National Flags

Did you know that the current US flag was designed by a high school student for a class project? (He got a B, though his teacher changed it to an A after Congress accepted it as the national flag!). Did you know that the Libyan flag is green (and nothing but green) or that the precursor to the Philippines flag had a Jolly Roger? Read on ...

1. Flag of the United States: The Stars and Stripes

Supposedly, it was George Washington himself who proclaimed "We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing Liberty."

Lower Left: Colonial Flag, used chiefly by Colonies of New England before the Revolutionary War. Lower Right: Bunker Hill Flag, used by New England troops at the battle of Bunker Hill. Upper Left: Pine Tree Flag of the Navy, used by the American ships early in the Revolutionary War. Upper Right: Rattlesnake flag, used early in Revolutionary War. Center Left: First National Flag, used in 1776, before the Declaration of Independence. Center Right: The Present "Star Spangled Banner" (Image: History of the US, a high school text book in 1885 [wikipedia])

At the time of the signing of the Declaration Independence, the United States of America had no official national flag. The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States, though it didn't have any official status.

In 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution stating that the national flag of the United States has 13 red and white stripes, and 13 white stars in a blue field. But it didn't specify the arrangement of the stars. One popular story is that George Washington asked Betsy Ross to design and sew the flag (Betsy decided to use a 5-pointed star instead of 6 to save time). Though this story is accepted as historical fact by most Americans, historians doubted it as the only evidence was the words of her only surviving grandson.

Since then, a new star is added to the flag when a new state joined the Union (in 1795, 2 stars and 2 stripes were added when Kentucky and Vermont became states, but the number of stripes subsequently reverted back to 13).

When Alaska and Hawaii were being considered for statehood, people sent in more than 1,500 new flag designs to President Eisenhower. One of the designs was submitted by a 17-year-old high school student named Bob Heft, who first created it as a school project. He got a B- for it (for "lack of originality"), though his teacher agreed to change his grade if his design was accepted. When Bob's flag design was chosen, his teacher changed the grade to an A! (Source)

2. The Flag of Afghanistan

Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south-central Asia. It is not particularly rich in natural resources, but its geographical location made it a crossroad between the East and the West. Throughout history, Afghanistan has probably seen more wars and conquests than any other piece of land in the world.

A true reflection of its history, the Afghan national flag has had more changes during the 20th century than flags of any other countries in the world.


Phew. Image credit: Wikipedia

3. Flag of the United Kingdom: the Union Jack


Image credit: Guilherme Paula [wikipedia]

The national flag of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the royal banner known as the Union Flag or more popularly the Union Jack. Its current design is the combination of the red Cross of St. George (patron saint of England), the white red Saltire (or X-shaped cross) of St. Patrick of Ireland and the white Saltire of Saint Andrew of Scotland.

Why is it called the Union Jack? Some people say because it was named after King James I of Great Britain (after Jacobus, Latin for James) who introduced the flag; others say that the "jack" refers to the jackstaff, a small pole in the bow of the ship used to fly flags - and since Britain's navy was formidable, the name Union Jack stuck.

If you look closely at the Union Jack, you'll notice that the diagonal red and white stripes aren't symmetrical. Here's the story behind it:

In 1801, an Act of Union which made Ireland a co-equal member of the United Kingdom made it necessary to add a symbol for Ireland to the flag, but without obliterating any of the existing symbols. If the St. Patrick's cross had been centered on the diagonal stripes, then St. Andrew's cross would have been relegated to an inferior position, basically serving only as a border for St. Patrick's. But Scotland was the senior of the two kingdoms, so this was unsatisfactory. The solution was to divide the diagonal stripes diagonally, so that the red St. Patrick's cross would take up only half of each stripe, and so that half devoted to St. Andrew would take the place of honor. Thus, in the two hoist quarters, the white St. Andrew's cross occupies the upper position, and in the two fly quarters, the red St. Patrick's cross occupies the upper position. (Source)

But what happened to Wales? The Flag of Wales, The Red Dragon or Y Ddraig Goch, isn't represented in the Union Jack because Wales was annexed by England in 1282. With the Laws in Wales Act 1535 - 1542, it is legally part of the Kingdom of England and thus represented under the St. George's Cross flag.

4. Flag of Albania

Albania has one of the most kick ass flags around: the two-headed eagle design was derived from a 15th century Albanian warrior named Gjergj Skanderbeg, the Dragon of Albania (who, ironically, had a two-headed eagle as a seal, not a dragon). Skanderbeg, in turn, got the design from an ancient Byzantine heraldry.

The evolution of the flag of Albania is as follows:

5. Flag of Libya

The flag of Libya is ... green. Green, and nothing but green - in fact, it's the only national flag in the world with only one color and no design or insignia. Green is the traditional color of Islam, the state religion of Libya, and also symbolizes Gaddafi's "Green Revolution," where he overthrew the Libyan monarchy in 1969.

6. Flag of the Seychelles

Seychelles is an archipelago nation of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean east of Africa. The country has 3 flags since its independence in 1976 from the British Commonwealth.

In the current flag, the blue band represents the sky and the sea that surrounds the island nation, the yellow band is the sun, the red symbolizes the people, the white band represents social justice and harmony, and the green band depicts the country's land and nature.

7. Flag of the Philippines

The present-day national flag of the Philippines has elements of the flags flown by the Katipunan secret society during the Philippine Revolution. The Pambansang bandila ("National Flag") was first conceptualized by General Emilio Aguinaldo during his exile in Hong Kong in 1897 and hand sewn by Marcela Agoncillo, her daughter Lorenzo and a friend named Josefina Herbosa de Natividad.

Though the Katipunan flags aren't considered national flags (and thus not a direct precursor of the current flag), their varieties and designs deserve a mention (plus what other national flag has a Jolly Roger?)

Some of the Katipunan generals have their own personal flags:

Anyway, here is the evolution of the Philippine national flag:

Actually, the blue color has been changed at least 5 times in the Philippines flag (read more about the blue shade debate here)


Obviously this article is woefully incomplete. There 193 recognized countries (more if you count special entities and territories) in the world, and we've only covered a handful. So if your country isn't listed and you think that its flag deserves a mention, please write about it in the comment section.


what a neat article.

Only small point is that the White on Blue Saltire is the Cross of St Andrew of Scotland, and the red on white Saltire is the cross of saint Patrick of Ireland.

Which is a very small point.

The Diagonal cross on a flag is called a Saltire but it is almost used interchangeably in Scotland to refer to our flag, pretty presuntuous I know but th sin is of ignorance not conceit.

The Saltire of Scotland is incidentally the worlds longest standing continuusly used flag.
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I don't know if this is true or not, but when I studied in Italy the professor told us that the Italian flag represents absolutely nothing, and that they basically stole the design from France and changed the colors. I may have to Wikipedia that to find out, but it was pretty funny to find out.
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Just some clarification sake,i just want to say,
under the picture of the Flag of St Andrew( the saltire) you have mistakenly put England.
And Wales was not incorporated into England till
the "Laws in Wales Acts 1535–1542"

But its a good article.
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The one flag I do like and know a bit about it's symbolism is the Tricolour of the Irish Republic.

The idea is that it combines the two disreate strands and tries to bring peace.

The Orange of the Protestant/Unionist side and the Green of the Catholic/Fiennan side, with the White band symbolising peace and unity.

Always found that oddly moving.
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The Australian flag has the union jack in the top left corner, and the southern cross (our star constellation down here) on a blue background.

I'm not sure why the background is blue - it used to be red in the early days.

Why the Union Jack in the corner? Because technically we still 'belong' to England.

I'm not kidding about that either. The Queen's representative in Australia, the Governer-General, actually fired our prime minister one time.

If Australia ever votes to become a republic, I'd say the flag will change again.

Probably due to the flag, it is popular amongst macho idiots to get the southern cross tattooed on themselves. Almost as much as a coil of barbed wire. That sort of thing goes towards showing just how much cooler than everyone else they truly are.
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The Australian flag was thought up by a bunch of teenagers and an architect (they all submitted separate designs that were more or less the same) for a competition :D

The big white star below the Union Jack has 7 points, which represent our 6 states (and then the two territories are stuck onto one point).

The red flag is for the merchant navy. Or something like that.
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Bit harsh MJ, I was goign to get the southern cross tattooed.

I'm a bit of a mongrel.

Scots Irish raised in the UK, Got both British and Irish passports and I'man Aussie Permenant resident, hopefully becoming a citizen in a couple of years.

What would you think of the Aussie flag,if Oz became a republic, being the feild of blue With the Southern Cross and the Star of federation only?

Basically as is but getting shot of the Pommy Flag.

I think that'd look preety good myself.

There's a move towards this for both Aistralia and New Zealand.

http://www.ausflag.com.au/top_20_designs.html

http://www.nzflag.com/default.cfm

Lots of good ideas, and the sooner there's a republic the better.
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To answer MJ's question, the Australian flag did both have red and blue backgrounds, since the red flag was used as an ensign at sea and the blue was used by the government. Eventually, the Prime Minister in 1941 asked folks to use the blue flag, which eventually became the national flag in 1953. My source is http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/symbols/flag.cfm
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Very useful information.

Just would like to add more to this,

You can find the Evolution of Indian Flag in the below link

http://www.vijayforvictory.com/2008/08/history-of-indian-flag/
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Vijay

how remarkable, the Indian and Irish flags have the same colours, the same triclour (though in different directions) the 2 colours symbolise the 2 largest groupings and th white symbolises peace and unity.

thanks for posting that.
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point of order, the US Flag referenced as being designed by a high-school student.... was not the current flag. was the flag with 49 stars after alaska and before hawaii joined. furthermore, was not "designed" by student; multiple examples of 49 and 50 star designs were being considered and it's regarded as a coincidence that his is similar to one chosen as 49-star flag... there's only so many combinations of stars, bound to happen.

check Wikipedia on US flag history for more info.
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I'm surprised among this list the flag of South Africa was not mentioned. It went through a major change in 1994 and looks nothing like the original design. Anybody else agree?
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I'd heard somewhere (I think it was an episode of Doctor Who, but I may be totally off on that one) that the Union Flag was only the Union Jack when flown on a ship, but that may not be, as you say that it's not necessarily a reference to the jackstaff.
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"A true reflection of its history, the Afghan national flag has had more changes during the 20th century than flags of any other countries in the world."

I really doubt this. Maybe more than any other single country, but "any other countries," with no limit on number or combination, certainly must be false.
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it was George Washington himself who proclaimed "We take the stars from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing Liberty."

And, of course, if you "take the blue from the sky, and a pretty girl's eye and a touch of Old Glory, too and give it to the men who proudly wear the US Air Force Blue", you have some slick, America saving, badass, flyboys who have saved our butts more than one time!
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Bob Smythe
September 9th, 2008 at 10:02 am

What about the Obama flag, with 57 stars?


Are you really that stupid or are you just trying to make a cheap political point?

It didn't work, either way.
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About the grand union flag, it's always tickled me pink to know that it started out as a corporate flag. It was the flag of the East India Trading Company at the time. In fact was off the ship from the tea party. And thus the circle continues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honourable_East_India_Company
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one thing about the Philippine flag -- when the flag is flown with the red side up, it indicates that the nation is at a state of war. i am not aware of any other nation's flag that has this "feature".
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The Israeli flag started out representing a tallis, a prayer shawl. It therefore is a white rectangle with a blue stripe on either end. When it was designed for the nascent Zionist movement, it was realized that the flag needed something else, otherwise when it hung from a vertical pole it could appear like a simple white flag (of truce or surrender). After some experimentation, the blue Magen David star was added to the middle.

-micha
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all this flag stuff is interesting.change is always needed to improve.also, check out my website updated every 2-weeks.
http://ran-the-monkey.livejournal.com/3279.html

interesting useful stuff.also, click on
PREVIOUS SITES button upper left.
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ABOVE: THE FIRST and SECOND FLAGS OF AMERICA

At the time of the signing of the Declaration Independence, the United States of America had no official national flag. The Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first national flag of the United States, though it didn t have any official status. In 1777, the Second Continental Congress passed the Flag Resolution stating that the national flag of the United States has 13 red and white stripes, and 13 white stars in a blue field. But it didn t specify the arrangement of the stars. One popular story is that George Washington asked Betsy Ross to design and sew the flag (Betsy decided to use a 5-pointed star instead of 6 to save time). Though this story is accepted as historical fact by most Americans, historians doubted it as the only evidence was the words of her only surviving grandson.
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Last weekend I visited Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and purchased a Gadsden flag (rattlesnake flag) in the gift shop. You can find out more info about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadsden_flag
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The United States Civil Flag of Peacetime is also our national flag. Despite what Wikipedia says, when the flag has a gold fringe it becomes the Federal Banner and not the national flag - it's not just a fancy decoration.
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I've always wondered why some flags have an identifiable historical or cultural element (India's spinning wheel or Mexico's cactus and eagle, for example) and so many others are just a boring 3 stripe. Any particular reason for the lack of imagination?
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