Flags
There are many
symbols representing Slovenia and Slovenians:
- The Prince's Stone represents the first
Slovenian country and reminds also that Slovenians already had independency in the
earlier history.
- 'Abecednik and Katekizem' and Primož
Trubar represent the transformation of the spoken language into written
language. An achievement that ensured that the language will never be forgotten
and could be read by the next generations.
- France
Prešeren showed that Slovenian language can be also used for poetry
- A Powerful
symbol is also the mountain peak Triglav which is the highest one in the
country. It is also present in the modern coat of arms.
- But I think that
the most powerful symbol for all Slovenians has always been the struggle.
Whether it was the revolt against the Franks in 10th century, or against the Turks;
or it was the peasant revolt in the 17th century, the political rallies and
movements in the 19th century, or the fight against Fascism and germanization,
or the war for independency against Yugoslavia in the 20th century, struggle
has always been present in Slovenian history.
One of the most important symbols, however,
is of course the flag. The Slovenian flag consists of three colours white, blue
and red (WBR) with the Coat of Arms at the upper left side.
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| Slovenian flag |
But if you look
at the flags of the other Slavic countries you can see that there are quite
some similarities among them. Many of them use the WBR colours. Actually, even
some of the big countries worldwide use the combination of these three colours like
France, UK, USA, North Korea, Chile, Netherlands, Norway.... So why are these colours
so special and are all these flags somehow related to each other?
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| European countries with WBR colours |
Slavic Countries
As we can see in
the picture below there are some flag similarities among the Slavic countries.
Six out of thirteen have the combination of white, blue and red. Let's take a
look into each flag's background.
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| Slavic countries and their flags |
Slovenia
The Slovenian flag with white, blue and red
stripes was firstly introduced in March 1848, during the so called Spring of Nations.
These three colours were introduced in the rally of Slovenian students in
Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire at the time, and shortly after that on
7. April in Ljubljana. The colours were taken from the Carniola Coat of Arms,
made in 1463, which was at that time the center of the Slovenian space. Before
that in the year 1836 the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I. recognized these
colours as the colours of Carniola.
Others claim, that the colours came from a Pan-Slavic
movement, which had a Slavic congress in Prague in June 1848. At that congress
members of all Slavic countries met and discussed on the identity of the Slavs
under the germanisation. At that congress even a Pan-Slavic flag was
introduced, which also had WBR.
The congress was, however, held after the first
Slovenian flags were already shown. Maybe this congress just helped to make
these colours more popular among people.
Croatia
The colours represent the three parts of Croatia: the Kingdom of Croatia (white, red), the Kingdom of Slavonia (blue, white), and the Kingdom of Dalmatia (blue and yellow). These colours have been used ever since 1848.
Serbia
Red and blue colours were used in the 13th
century under the king Vladislav I of Serbia. White stripe was added in the
year 1835 and the flag has been used in that form ever since.Slovakia
This is another flag that has been adopted during
the Spring of Nations in 1848. It is very similar to the Slovenian and Russian
flag. In the middle ages the original Slovak flag consisted of just two
stripes, red and white. Later in relation to the 'Slavic brothers’ the blue
stripe was adopted from the Russian flag.
Czech Republic
The white and red stripes came from the Flag
of Bohemia, the biggest one of the three Czech lands. In order to distinguish it
from the flag of Poland and Austria in the year 1920 the blue triangle was
added. This was also the Flag of Czechoslovakia after the unification with
Slovakia into one republic.
Russia
There are two stories about the origins of the
Russian flag and both of them, have even the same end. According to them it was
influenced by the Netherland flag. The one tells that in the end of the 17th
century, Tsar Peter the Great ordered new ships from the Netherlands. When they
arrived, they had the Netherlands naval flag raised on the ships. Peter liked
the colours and decided that Russian naval flag will also contain these three
colours. The second story says that the ship chief engineer proposed that
Russia, like other countries, should have its own naval flag. The Tsar asked
him for suggestion, and because he was a Dutch, he proposed blue, white and red
colours. It became the official flag of Russia in the year 1883.Countries that no longer exist
These three colours were also used in some
countries that no longer exist. Most of them were in the Balkan region.
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Other Countries
France
There are many explanations about the
origins of the French colours. It was adopted in 1794 during the French
Revolution. It maybe represents the three classes in society: bourgeoisie –
blue, clergy – white and the nobility – red. The white colour in the middle is
between the bourgeoisie and the nobility. There are also some references to the
flag of Paris (red and blue), the French capital city and the place where the
revolution started. During the French
Revolution people wore hats with these three colours. The colours became the colours
of liberty and independency.Netherlands
Originally it was orange, white and blue in
honor of the Prince William of Orange, who led the resistance against Spain in
1568, which eventually brought the independency in 1648. These were the colours
of his Coat of Arms. In the 17th century orange was changed to red and remained
in that form till nowadays. The flag, also as mentioned before, influenced the creation
and composition of the Russian flag.Norway
It was designed in the year 1821 by Fredrik
Meltzer and became official in 1899. The
colours refer to the French flag and the idea of freedom. The Nordic cross is
used like nearly in all Nordic countries and represents Christianity. Another
explanation for the colours is that the red was taken from the flag of Denmark
and blue from the flag of Sweden, two neighbor countries which were closely
related to the Norway history.
United Kingdom
The flag of the United Kingdom was adopted
in 1801 after the unification of the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of
Great Britain. It represents the crosses of three countries united under one
flag: the red cross of Saint George representing England, the cross of St.
Patrick for Ireland and Saint Andrew's cross for Scotland.
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| From up St. Andrew cross, cross of St. Patrick, cross of St. George |
USA
Also interesting is the origin of the colours of the flag of the USA.
Unlike the European history there was no heraldry present in medieval times in
the USA, which was actually the foundation for many of the European flags. The
Grand Union Flag is considered to be the first flag of the United States. It is
very similar to the Flag of the British East India Company which was well known
by the American colonists.
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| The Grand Union flag (1775) |
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| Flag of British East India Company (1707-1801) |
Also if we add white stripes to the Flag of
the British Merchant navy we get the Grand Union flag.
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| Flag of British Merchant navy (1707-1801) |
Another explanation is that white
represents purity and innocence, red hardiness and valor and blue vigilance,
perseverance and justice.
North Korea
We can find WBR colours also in Asia.
Interesting is the flag of North Korea. The flag was adopted in 1948. The blue
stripes represent sovereignty, peace and friendship and the red represent
communism and revolutionary patriotism. The white is a traditional Korean color
and stands for purity and the culture of the Korean people. The red star
symbolizes the communist philosophy of the country. The white circle is linked
to the yin-yang symbol in the flag of South Korea.
General meaning
As we can see the combination of these
three colours is popular around the entire world. Each flag has its own story.
Anyway each colour can be connected to some basic terms, which are accepted
worldwide.
Red can represent courage, valor,
revolution, blood, heroism
Blue represents freedom, perseverance,
justice, vigilance, peace, prosperity
White is a symbol for peace, purity,
innocence
Other Combinations
Pan-African Colours
Except for the WBR, there are also some
other combinations of colours which are popular and used for flags worldwide.
One example are the pan African colours. These three colours are to be seen in
the flags of various countries in Africa. There are two groups; the group of green,
yellow, and red based on the Ethiopian flag and the group of countries with
red, green and black colours.
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| Flag of Ethiopia |
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| Pan - African colours |
Nordic Cross
Another example are the flags of the Nordic
countries. All countries have in their flag the Nordic Cross, which represents
Christianity. These countries are, as you seen in the picture below: Iceland, Faroe Islands, Orkney Islands,
Shetland Islands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Åland Islands and Finland.
Pan-Arab Colours
Also many Arab countries have similar
colours. The Pan-Arab colours are black, white, green and red. They were for
the first time introduced with the flag of the Arab revolt in 1916.
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| Flag of Arab revolt |
Egypt
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Iraq
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Jordan
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Kuwait
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Libya
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Sudan
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Syria
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UAE
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Yemen
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Conclusion
The flag is a very representative and very
strong symbol of each nation. Similarities with other flags can be accidental
or intentional. Like the example of the Slavic countries which predominantly use
the white, blue and red colour combination. However, each country has its own
story of the origins of its own colours. The Russian flag might have been
inspired from the flag of the Netherlands, other countries took their colours
from the medieval coat of arms and flags. So in this way we can say that there
is no connection between these countries. On the other hand Slavic nations are connected
somehow. After all they all have the same origins, some of them even lived in
the same country, some were neighbors, some traded with each other,...
Many flags were created during the revolution
years, from the French Revolution in the year 1789 till the Spring of Nations
in 1848. The people were disappointed with the political leadership and
demanded more democracy. The French flag became the symbol of the revolution
and when the movement, which was not coordinated or cooperated with revolutionaries
in other countries moved to these countries the three colours were accepted as
a symbol of change.
In my point of view, each country has had
many colours in its historical development that it could have chosen from. But
somehow in that revolutionary period some colours were more notable. Red for
example representing blood, revolution and white representing peace, purity.
The revolution affected many countries, most of them got their new flag in this
period. Let's take a closer look in the year 1848. Revolutions took place
nearly in all Europe; in France, the German states, the Austrian Empire, the Italian
States, Denmark, Poland,...
If we just look at the countries that were back
then part of the Austrian Empire; Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary,
Italy, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine we can see, that
most of them got their flag during these revolutionary years, except for
Romania (the same flag as the French one, instead of white there is yellow) and
Ukraine (blue and yellow) all have red and white colours in their flags. This
could be a coincidence, but I think that people actually did identify
themselves with these colours and their meaning.
Also the fact that many Slavic countries
added the blue colour to the white and red one could somehow represents the identification
with and the relationship to other Slavic nations.
Something similar can be seen in some of
the Arab countries. Their flags are similar to the flag of the Arab revolution.
The Arab people identified themselves with these colours. The Nordic cross became also a general symbol
for all the Nordic countries.
Despite the prehistoric colours and medieval
coat of arms, I think that the colours of many flags, not all, were somehow
influenced by the time circumstances in which they have occurred. In
revolutionary years blue, red and white were commonly featured.
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