National Flags

[Theobald]

Post your national flags and their meanings.

France



France's flag (sometimes called the 'Tricolor') was first used in 1789, after the French Revolution. It was officially adopted as the French national flag on February 15, 1794. The design and/or colors are similar to a number of other flags, including those of Belgium, Chad, Ireland, Cote d'Ivoire, Luxembourg, and Netherlands.
The flag consists of three equal vertical bands (a tricolor) of blue (on the hoist side), white, and red. The width is two-thirds of the height.

White: the color of the Bourbon kings
Blue and red : the colors of Paris. (Red: the dynasty of the Carolingians and Blue: the Capetians)

The King Louis XVI has accepted these colors of the 14th July 1790 on the Camp de Mars, meaning that Parisian people were with him. The French flag summarizes the 3 dynasties who made the French History in about 10 centuries.


Some French Royal flags













About the Fleur-de-Lys : http://www.heraldica.org/topics/fdl.htm

[Theobald]

So there is only one flag in Europe ?!

[Gil]

Hmmm, interesting, the source for your flag image is:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/flags/fr-lgflag.gif
so...after all you love the americans huh?

[Faísca]

Portugal



Flag of 1143
This is the heraldic banner of King Afonso Henriques, a blue cross on a silver background.



Flag of 1185
The King Sancho I changed the design to five eschutcheons (small shields) blue arranged in a cross (the ones in the sides pointing to the center, the other three pointing downwards), each charged with 11 silver circles. These five eschutcheons (quinas) are said to represent the five wounds of Christ (hands, feet and chest).



Flag of 1248
King Afonso III added a border red charged with castles gold marking his marriage to Queen Beatriz, daughter of King Alfonso IX of Castille, whose arms are a castle gold on red. "Popular" heraldry attributes the castles to the definitive conquest and annexation of Moorish Algarve, after seven battles, but the Castille connection is much more probable, especially for the number of castles was fixed to seven only in 1640.



Flag of 1385
After the dynastic crisis of 1383-1385, newly emerged King João I, Master of the Avis Order, added its green fleur-de-lys cross to his flag, wich lasted for 100 years. This is the first confirmed flag for Portugal, previous may have existed only as coats of arms. According to some sources (Smith included) these colors of red and green would influence the republican flag, but that's totally unbased. This flag was also used in the 20th century as the banner of the fascist paramilitary state organization Legião Portuguesa (Portuguese Legion), during the 1932-1974 right-wing dictatorship.



Flag of 1485
King João II took off the Avis cross and fixed to five the number of circles in the eschutcheons, as well as its saltire arrange and the downwards pointing direction of all of them. The number of castles was also reduced to seven, although later the coat of arms regained a higher, undetermined number until 1640.



Flag of 1495 -- D. Manuel Flags
The crown appeared first on the coat of arms; when it appeared on the flags is not possible to say with great precision. In my rendition of the 1485-1495 royal standard the crown doesn't appear. D. Manuel I (1495-1521) used the crowned shield over the cross of the Order of Christ (on the royal standard; he also owned a personal standard: diagonally quartered in red and white with the golden armillary sphere over all.)



Flags of 1578 & 1640
In that period both the arms-on-white and the Christ Knights’ Cross on green were used, but the latter being always regarded as unnofficial (although much more popular!). The chronicles of this time are not very clear about it, but many historians (especially Jaime Cortesão and more recently José Hermano Saraiva) do agree on this point.



Flag of 1667
According to Carlos Noronha (and later confirmed from several sources), the crowns used in portuguese flags and royal coats of arms from 1667 on had 5 instead of 3 "stems". If so, crowns on portuguese national flags were "royal open" from 1495 (D. Manuel) to 1577 (D. Sebastião), "closed, with three stems" from 1577 to 1667 (D. Pedro II), "closed, with five stems" from 1667 to 1833 (D. Miguel) and "closed, with five stems and a red beret inside" from 1833 (but maybe since before) to 1910.



Flag of 1706
No further comments.



Flag of 1816
No further comments.



Flag of 1830
The flag of the Kingdom of Portugal (Reino de Portugal), adopted in 1830 and replaced in 1910 by the present one had proportions 2:3, vertically divided blue on the hoist (1:3) and white (2:3) on the fly. The royal coat of arms was like the republican one but with no armillary sphere and with a crown above. The bottom of the shield, however, is not round like the republican flag and in pre 1820 flags but like a horizontal "{" (I dont know the proper heraldic term).



Current Flag
The portuguese national flag is a 2:3 rectangle divided vertically into green at the hoist (2/5 of the flag’s length) and red at the fly (3/5). Centered in this partition a coat of arms consisting on an armillary sphere charged with the traditional portuguese shield.

Sources: António Martins & Mario Fabretto.

[Kräuterhexe]

Black, red and gold in three equal horizontal stripes are the colors of the flag of the Federal Republic of Germany. The colors date to the emperors of the Middle Ages. They reappeared in the war against Napoleon when a corps of army volunteers drawn from all the German principalities, adopted black uniforms with red braid and gold buttons.

Subsequently student organizations, dedicated to the unification of Germany, used the colors on their banners. In the first attempt to create a democratic and unified Germany, leaders of the 1848 Revolution adopted the tricolor flag in the National Assembly or Frankfurt Parliament.

The flag was not actually used until 1918 when the German National Assembly of the democratic Weimar Republic adopted it officially. When Hitler came to power in 1933 he abolished the tricolor flag.

In 1950, the flag was reintroduced by the German Parliament as the official symbol for the Federal Republic of Germany.

1816 German Fraternity Flag
1848 - 1866 National Flag and Trading Flag 1867 - 1871 Flag of North Germany
1867 - 1921 Imperial war flag
1871 - 1919 National flag of the second German Reich
1919 - 1933 Trading flag of the Weimar Republic
1919 - 1933 National flag of the Weimar Republic
1933 - 1935 National and Trading flag of the third German Reich (together with swastika flag)
1949 - today Current German national flag



http://www.german-flag-history.com/

[Fantom]

About Serbian flags:
http://flagspot.net/flags/cs-sr.html

[Perun]

Flag of Ukraine. The yellow is supposed to represent the wheat fields of Ukraine and the blue is supposed to represent the sky.

[Perun]

History of the Ukrainian flag
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/ua-flhis.html




Here are some historical Ukrainian flags


Ukrainian banners flown at the Battle of Grunwald in 1410


Flag based on arms adopted by Supreme Ruthenian Council, Lviv, 1848.


Flag of the Ukrainian National Republic of 1917-18


Both sides of the flag of the Sich Riflemen Legion(famous Ukrainian military formation of WW1 and the Civil War)


Emblem of the 14th Waffen-SS "Galicia" Division (aka 1st Division of the National Ukrainian Army)


Flag of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalism


Ukrainian National Assembly (UNA)


Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists


Ukrainian National Self-Defence (UNSO)

[henerte]

Hmm...I didn't know that Ukrainians had their own flag at Gruenwald. Actually, I didn't really know that they were there. I hope it's not a some kind of Ukrainian urban legend, is it? Was something like Ukrainian identity already established in the XV century, isn't that too early???

BTW: Does the lion comes from Lvov?

[Eara]

THE FLAGS OF ARMENIA
Flags of Armenian kingdoms and republics

Ardashesian Dynasty(180BC-1AD)


Arsacide Dynasty (64AD - 428AD)


Marzbanate period(IV-VII century)


Bagratunid flag


Soviet Armenia(1920-1991)


REPUBLIC OF ARMENIA(1918-1920 and since 1991)
The flag represents the people of Armenia. The red stands for the blood shed by all Armenian soldiers, present and past. The orange stands for the fertile land and the farmers who work on it. The blue stands for the sky.

[Eara]

THE SYMBOLS OF KILIKIAN ARMENIAN KINGDOM

Rubenian Dynasty(1080AD-1375AD)


Escutcheon of King Leo V


Cilicia Coat of Arms (Cyprus UK XIV century)

[Perun]

Originally Posted by henerte

Hmm...I didn't know that Ukrainians had their own flag at Gruenwald. Actually, I didn't really know that they were there. I hope it's not a some kind of Ukrainian urban legend, is it? Was something like Ukrainian identity already established in the XV century, isn't that too early???

It wasnt a Ukrainian identity per se. I believe during that time the "Ukrainian" identity was more closely linked to the Kingdom of Galicia and Kieven Rus. But during this period Ukraine was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth I believe and there was a competition between the Commonwealth and Muscovy over who would reunite the Rus.

[Mjölnir]

Austria

.
National Flag and Civil Ensign

http://www.fahnenversand.de/fotw/flags/at.html#national

-----------------------------------------------------------

Österreichische Bundesländer (Federal States of Austria)

Die Flaggen wurden freundlicher Weise zur Verfügung gestellt von Dr. Peter Diem
The flags were kindly supplied by Dr. Peter Diem
http://www.peter-diem.at/

Die Flaggen der Österreichischen Bundesländer werden mit oder ohne Wappen gezeigt. Amtlich verwendet, tragen sie immer das Wappen, jedoch darf auch die Bevölkerung Flaggen mit Wappen verwenden.
– The flags of the Federal States of Austria are used with or without the coat of arms. For official use, however, they always show it. The general population is permitted to use this format as well.

Übersicht:

Burgenland
Kärnten
Niederösterreich
Oberösterreich
Salzburg
Steiermark
Tirol
Vorarlberg


WienBurgenland

Kärnten

Niederösterreich (Lower Austria)

Oberösterreich (Upper Austria)

Salzburg

Steiermark

Tirol

Vorarlberg

Wien (Vienna)

Flagge von Wien

(offiziell seit 1998)

Flagge von Wien

bis 1919 und
zwischen 1934 und 1945

[Jovellanos]

Spain


State flag. 1981



Juan I de Castilla.
Reyes Católicos.
Reyes Católicos.


Carlos V 1520.

Felipe II.
Felipe V 1700.
Carlos III 1759.
Isabel II.
1940.
1977.

[Menydh]

Originally Posted by Jovellanos

Spain