Global Diplomacy Flags

Austria's red, white and red flag had its origin many centuries ago when the Babenberg dynasty, which was started in 976, ruled it. The flag is associated with Leopold of Babenburg who ruled in the twelfth century. During one of the Crusades, he was wounded at Acre, as he was mounting the wall. His men carried him back from the battle. Leopold and his men noticed then that his white shirt was red with blood except for a white strip around the waist which had been protected by his belt. His soldiers then raised a red, white, and red flag in honour of his bravery. These colours were used by succeeding members of the Babenburg family, the last of whom was Duke Frederic II, who died in battle in 1246.

The blue dragon on a yellow field with a red sun in the upper left was the Chinese state and war ensign first used in 1890.

The national flag of Great Britain is a combination of the crosses of St. George, St. Andrew and St. Patrick. England's banner is the white cross of St. George, the patron saint. In 1706, the flag was altered and the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland, were conjoined. By a proclamation issued in 1801, the flag was again altered to show union with Ireland. The diagonal red Cross of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was added.

The national flag of France was introduced in 1789 during the French revolution. The order of the colours then was red, white and blue. In 1830, the flag was changed to its present form with the blue next to the hoist.

The origin of the tricolour has been explained in various ways. According to history, after the fall of the Bastille, King Louis XVI realized that the new local government of Paris was one to be reckoned with and that the people of France were in sympathy with the National Assembly in Paris and not with the King and the Royalists. Late in 1789, he reorganized the government of Paris and approved the appointment of Lafayette as Commander of the National Guard. It is said that Louis XVI came to Paris wearing a cockade of red, white and blue, the red and blue being the colours of the arms of the city of Paris and the white the colour of the House of Bourbon. Another account tells us that the national tricolour may be attributed to the blue Chape de Martin that Clovis carried, the oriflamme (flag) of St. Denis, and the white flag that the Huguenots adopted.

Black and gold have been used as German colours since 1214. The flag of the ancient German Empire consisted of a black eagle on a gold field. In 1871, the House of Hohenzollern became the reigning family of Germany and, under Chancellor Bismarck, adopted an imperial standard. On a yellow ground a black iron cross edged in white extended to the edges of the flag. This was the cross of the Order of Teutonic Knights. A shield bearing the black eagle of Prussia superimposed on the red eagle of Brandenburg and four imperial crowns appeared at the intersection of the cross. On the arms of the cross appeared the legend "Gott Mit Uns 1870".

Like Germany, Italy did not become a united nation until the middle of the last century; not only had it previously consisted of a number of small states, but much of the country had actually been under foreign rule, that of Austria. The new Kingdom of Italy adopted the flag devised by Napoleon when he had been ruler of Italy; it was similar to the French tricolour with green instead of blue. When Mexico adopted a similar tricolour, however, the Merchant Flag of Italy was differenced by a shield on its white stripe; the Ensign placed a crown above the shield. This came from the arms of the House of Savoy, the family which, until recently, ruled Italy: it was a red shield on which was a white cross of St. George's type, and had a blue border.

Japan was so named by China because she lay west of Japan and thought of Japan as the source of the sun. The Japanese have had a flag with a sun on it since the eighth century. The present flag was adopted in 1859.

There are various interpretations of the sun on the flag. One is that the sun is the image of the Imperial ancestor, the sun goddess. Another is that the rising sun was chosen because Japan thought of herself as the place where the sun first appears and considered this an omen symbolic of Japan's position in the Orient. She interpreted it to mean that she was first and foremost the rising power in the East. The red symbolizes enthusiasm, the white patriotism.

The white crescent in the Turkish flag is sometimes attributed to an event that occurred in 339 BC. According to legend, the Macedonian Emperor, Philip of Macedon, beseiged Byzantium but encountered difficulty. He determined to undermine the walls by night. A crescent moon enabled the Byzantines to discover Emperor Philip and his warriors and to save their city.

The Byzantines, thereupon, chose the cresent moon for the badge of their city and erected a statue to their patroness, Diana, goddess of the moon. In 1415, Byzantium fell to the Turks. They adopted the crescent moon for their symbol and placed it on a red flag, signifying that Constantinople had been gained on a field of blood. But there is another explanation. It is said that Ertkul, father of Ottoman, had a dream in which a half moon arose from the lap of Edebai, the Saracen prophet, and that thereafter the Ottomans decided to use the half moon in their flag. The star represents the morning star Al Tarek which is exceedingly bright.

The Russian Merchant flag was a horizontal tricolour of white, blue and red. The Imperial standard of the Czar bore a double-headed eagle, black on a yellow field, a device which dates from the Byzantine Empire of the fifteenth century.

In 1031 the kingdoms of Navarre and Castile united. The King of Navarre and his knights broke loose the chains defending the Almohede Sultan's tent, in battle with the Moors at Las Navas de Tolosa in 1213. From that time on the arms of the Kings of Navarre were emblazoned with the chain.

Castile means castle; the castle is the charge of this kingdom. Charges frequently had some resemblance to the name of the person or place they represented, either in meaning or sound. The Kingdom of Leon joined the Kingdoms of Navarre and Castile in 1037. The right half of the emblem shows the red lion, the arms of Leon.

In 1474, Ferdinand II of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The colours of the flag were chosen because they were the colours of the arms of King Ferdinand and though the design of the flag has been changed many times, these colours have been retained.

After the independence of Brazil, the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brasil and Algarves was over. A new flag was decreed in 1830. It was composed by the Portuguese Shield of Arms, and the blue and white colours. The blue was in honour of Santa Conceição, patroness saint of Portugal, and white represented peace and harmony. The Portuguese Shield of Arms, evoluted since the formation of Portugal until present day, the "Quinas" (the 5 blue shields aligned like a cross) and "Besantes" (the shields inside each Quina) being the oldest components of it.

The origin of the Quinas and Besantes is unknown. There is a legend that relates them to the Battle of Ourique (1139) and the five wounds of Christ. According to it, Christ revealed himself to the first portuguese king, Afonso Henrique, and promised him the victory against the five moor kings in the upcoming battle, and that Portugal would be head of a great empire, in the future. (Historians are not sure about the very existence of the battle itself.) Other version says that the Quinas and Besantes are just small extra shields incrusted in the main shield by nails. The Quinas would be aligned like a cross, because the father of the portuguese king was a crusade of Cluny.

The red border with the castles was introduced in the end of the fifteen century, when the Pope ordered the deposition of the portuguese king by the king's brother. The new addition was made so that his flag would be different from his brother, in the civil war that followed. The castles were related with the new king ascendance of the kings of Portugal and Castile. In the sixteen century, the crown was introduced in the flag, as the symbol of the monarchy.

In 1896 Utah joined the United States as the forty-fifth state hence the forty-five stars in the flag. The significance of the colours was defined by the Continental Congress thus: "White signifies Purity and Innocence; Red Hardiness and Valour; Blue Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice." Ascribed to George Washington is this description-"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." The stars represent the states in the Union and have increased as the Union has grown but the thirteen stripes are a perpetual tribute to the original thirteen states.