Questions tagged [flags]
For questions about flags and their historical use and design, as well as for similar design uses such as on shields and surplices.
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What is the first (black,red,yellow) flag on this poster?
In the poster below (dated around 1960), I can identify all flags except the very first one. It is a tricolor flag with vertical stripes, being black, red and yellow/gold from left to right. ...
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What flag had a black cross blue field 1589?
What flag is blue background and black cross flags 1589?
Used by Giovanni Batista Boazio
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Why did the communist Khmer Rouge use a religious image in their flag?
The Khmer Rouge, or the Communist Party of Kampuchea, used this flag:
It features the Angkor Wat, a famous Buddhist temple with a Hindu origin.
As far as I have been able to understand, the symbol ...
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How was the size of the stars on the American flag decided?
Here's what I know so far: Until 1912, there was no precise definition of the American flag, with the layout of the stars and exact dimensions of the components not officially defined. This changed ...
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What flag are the men in these photos flying?
The below pictures show US Army troops in 1945, having captured the city of Nuremberg. I was curious about the flags they are waving, though - they don't seem to match up with any of the recorded ...
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What is the reason for the modern prominence of the Confederate battle flag, as opposed to some other Confederate flag?
It seems whenever there's news of some protests in the USA, the Confederate battle flag will almost invariably show up in the associated photoreports.
Granted, this may just be observer bias due to me ...
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Why was the Ottoman flag changed from an eight-pointed star to five-pointed in the 19th century?
According to Wikipedia, alongside the crescent, the flag of the Ottoman empire had an eight-pointed star until 1844 or so, when the star was changed to five points.
It seems the eight-pointed star was ...
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What is the flag on Shinzo Abe's suit? [closed]
and are random a photos from a performance of Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe. The emblem number 1, as I understand, is the Imperial Seal. But I couldn't find any information about the emblem ...
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Did the Mexican province of Nuevo Mexico have its own provincial flag?
After the Mexican Revolution, there was a province called Nuevo Mexico, that somewhat is in the location of current-day New Mexico. Did that province have its own provincial flag? If so, what did it ...
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What flag is similar to the American flag, but has only 9 stars and 13 vertical stripes? [closed]
I saw a flag walking around my neighborhood similar to an American flag but I don't recognize it. It had nine white stars in a grid on a blue background in the top left corner, the rest of the flag ...
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What's the story behind the original Florida flag emblem?
I'm doing some research for school and a part of this is learning about the seal of the flag, my question is as following:
What's the story behind the original Florida flag emblem and the story behind ...
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Are the Swiss flag and the flag/coat of arms of Piedmont related?
Below is a picture of a flag I recently saw in a restaurant, that looked to me like the Swiss flag with a bridge drawn on it:
Through image search I discovered this was actually the coat of arms of ...
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What is this consistent symbol in the Spanish coat of arms? [closed]
I have been reading Spanish history today, and have noticed a very distinct commonality in the flags and coat of arms for various periods, but I haven't been able to find precise explanations of the ...
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Why doesn’t Cuba's flag have any communist symbolism?
The wikipedia page on the flag of Cuba says:-
It is one of the two flags of a currently socialist country (the other being Laos) that does not use any Communist Symbolism.
The symbolism is (from ...
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What does this Swiss banner/blazon/coat of arms/flag stand for?
The blazon can be found on the Basel town hall
It depicts two war axes that are crossed. The other flags depict banners of states of Switzerland, the one to the right is Wallis.
More pictures of the ...
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Flag flying dynamics
How many flags are allowed to be on one pole?
Is a flag ever flown up side down at half-mast, more than 1 and why?
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What's this flag flying on a fort at Kodiak, Alaska?
Naval captain Yuri Lisianskii drew a harbor scene in Alaska about 1805. It was engraved in England for an edition of his book.
(High-res version)
In the image, from left to right, there are flags ...
user18968
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Why is former Portuguese flag similar to Finnish one?
What is the reason/story behind the look of one of the former Portuguese flags, which is extremely similar to Finnish current one?
Wikipedia dates the flag within 1095–1143 AD.
Nowadays, we can find ...
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What Roman legions were present in London (UK)?
I have just come across an interesting article about the Romans in London (UK):
Roman eagle found by archaeologists in City of London
a Picture from the above article (just to have an idea):
My ...
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Was the flag of Iceland originally fimbriated in silver?
The flag of Iceland, shown below, is described blazon as "Azure, a cross gules fimbriated argent", indicating that the fimbriation is silver. Argentum means silver in Latin.
Does this mean that ...
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What is this flag?
The following flag is worn by Princess Isabella when she meets William Wallace.
Actress Sophie Marceau as Princess Isabella in Braveheart
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Where was this flag flown?
I have a 48 Star flag that I have recently acquired from a seller off of a similar setting to Craigslist. He said he’s found it in an attic and really has no other information on it. Because the size ...
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Did the Confederate States of America ever officially adopt William T. Thompson's descriptions of the CSA national flag?
William Tappan Thompson is not infrequently referenced as the "creator" and "designer" of the Confederate States of America (CSA) national flag in popular media, see William Thompson Designed the ...
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Have national symbols often acquired partisan meanings?
In the U.S. today the Republican Party and its partisans use much more patriotic imagery than its opposition. Conservatives highly value loyalty (see Haidt's moral foundations theory). The national ...
user18968
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What was the Hospitaller gonfalon like in the 12th and 13th centuries?
The Templar Order had a gonfalon (a military standard of a specific type) of black and white called the beauseant (I have come to prefer the spelling most common in the book I first took it from ...
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Why was the C-pennant chosen as the flag of ships from Allied-occupied Germany?
Is there any evidence explaining why the Allies chose the C-pennant, instead of a more intuitive letter? Why not G (for Germany) or D (for Deutschland)?
Or A for Allemagne, or S for Sachsa, or N for ...
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Why does the Puerto Rican flag look so much like the one of the U.S.A.?
Here's a picture a the Puerto Rican flag:
Is there a historical reason why it looks pretty much like the flag of the U.S.A.? I mean, there are white and red stripes (differing only in quantity), one ...
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Can anyone explain why the Scottish flag on this map from 1504 has a red cross on a white background?
The section of the map below is from a nautical chart by the Portuguese cartographer Pedro Reinel (c.1462 – c.1542). On it, Scotland is shown with a red St. Andrew's Cross on a white background.
Upon ...
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Flag with 13 white stars and a crescent on red background
What flag is this?
I saw this flag as a sticker on a car from another country. I could not recognize the plate so I do not know its nationality.
My search on Google/images resulted mostly in the ...
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Did the 49 star USA flag see significant adoption by the American public?
1959, the 48 star flag, which had been in use since 1912, was being retired and replaced with a 49 star flag thanks to Alaska becoming a state.
While government bodies would have swapped out their ...
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If the Union Jack joins the flag of England and Scotland, why does it have a different shade of blue than the Scottish flag?
This chart (public domain from Wikimedia Commons) illustrates the question. Is there an explanation for why the Union Jack have a darker shade of blue than the original Scottish flag that it's based ...
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How can a diamond shape be a reference to Napoleon?
The green and yellow on the Brazilian flag are references to the Houses of Bragança and Lorraine (of Francis I and II of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine), respectively. It seems that the diamond shape ...
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What flag has a blue-grey background and an orange-outlined green cross?
I have a picture of a flag but I do not know where it's from. The cross indicate that it's likely European and it looks very much like the Swedish flag.
Which country has this flag?
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What is the flag in this 17th century painting?
I'm doing research on a painting 'Koppertjesmaandag' by Adriaen van Nieulandt in 1633. In the right corner of the painting you can see a couple of ships with their flags. One in particular is a gold ...
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Which regions/dynasties do the flags in this Fresco about Byzantine-Persian war represent?
Piero Della Francesca painted the following Fresco to depict battle between Heraclius of Byzantine Empire and Khosrou II of Persian Empire.
Which regions or dynasties do the flags represent?
From ...
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Star of the Allies
Which alliance is this?
The picture is from a hand stitched post card around the time of WWI. Can't figure out when these five nations (assuming the black/yellow is some form of Germany), would have ...
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What is the small country between USSR and Mongolia in 1935?
Please, help me to identify the small territory to the northwest of Mongolia that you can see in this map:
I've searched on Google and Wikipedia with no results.
(I know it's not so small a ...
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Why do central European nations use the color black as their national colors?
We all know that national colors exists, often associated directly with the flag of a nation. Red and white for example are one of the most frequently used colors world wide by many nations (Austria, ...
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What is the history behind the stripes on the East India Company's flag?
Having stumbled across the East India Company's flag, I couldn't help but notice the similarity to the US flag.
However, I would like to know what the history of the stripes on the Company's flag ...
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Which Muslim factions during the Crusade used the crescent in their flags or banners?
According to NSNoob comments on Did Hungarian Army ever use Crescent banners?
Crescent was used by Muslims since the Crusades.
Wikipedia seems to agree. For example: the article on Star and ...
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Did the Hungarian Army ever use crescent banners?
I was reading about Battle of Mohi between the Mongol Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary.
Wikipedia contains this artistic depiction of the battle:
The cavalry on left hand looks like Mongols while ...
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What do the four castles on the flag of Ibiza represent?
The flag of Ibiza consists of four horizontal, red stripes on a yellow background. Each corner of the flag contains a seven-tower castle above a wave.
What is the significance of the four castles? ...
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Any history to the current flag used by ISIL? [closed]
I know the current flag used by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is black with white letters stating: "There is no God but Allah" and in the middle of a white circle in black letters ...
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Did any part of the Netherlands ever use this flag?
Was there ever any part of the Netherlands which had this flag?
Guilherme Paula - Public Domain
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Why do so many national flags contain the color red?
I was doing some riddles with my daughter today and mentioned some nations. She had to 'calculate' how many of those nations' flags had the color red in them.
As it happened, all of them did. In ...
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Flag of Paris: Why blue and red?
The flag of Paris is blue and red.
What was the red chosen for?
What was the blue chosen for?
I have heard that blue identified with Saint Martin, and red with Saint Denis, but the Wikipedia pages ...
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Why do (almost) all countries have a flag, coat of arms, anthem, national holiday etc.?
A number of official symbols are used by virtually all modern nations. These include:
National flag1
Coat of arms
National anthem
National Day
Given that it is often difficult to get even two of the ...
user4656
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Are there cases of U.S. Founding Fathers burning flags of other nations?
After reviewing some arguments for and against flag burning I became curious
as to whether or not there were documented cases of the U.S. Founding Fathers (or politically influential people of the ...
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Why is the color red associated with communism?
The color red is traditionally associated with communism. You can find it in the flags of the Soviet Union and China, and the Red Star is a a common symbol in communist countries. Why is the color red ...
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Tricolore: Why have the colors been chosen that way?
The French flag, the Tricolour, was installed as France's national flag shortly after the Revolution in 1790. Its colors are Red and Blue - which are the colors of the flag of Paris - and White - ...
user4553