Every country has their own flag and we've covered a number of them here on the channel
I'll post a link to the full fun with flags playlist in the description. But a few countries
deserve special attention in this video. Today I'm going to talk about the colonial flags of
European powers. As we know a large number of European countries had colonial empires for
hundreds of years, some starting around the 16th century and going all the way to the 20th. And a
lot of times they chose specific flags to represent their rule in those locations and the lands and
people of those places. We're going to talk about the colonial flags of the following nations
the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands
I know it seems like a lot, but trust me, we can fit a general overview within this video
because a lot of them followed the same styles and some of these countries didn't even have
specific colonial flags. So let's start with the UK. Again, this is a general overview so I won't
get into individual detail of all of them. I'll probably make a dedicated video for the UK ones
at least because they are so many and all with the same style. This style is the following
Throughout the majority, if not all of their colonies, the United Kingdom used a red or blue field with the Union Jack in the top left corner
On the right, they placed some type of emblem or coat of arms which represented the region specifically
Now, as we know, the British Empire was absolutely gigantic. And so there were a lot, and I mean a lot of flags
representing their territories, colonies, dominions, and some of them even lasting until
modern times as they fly over the now-renamed British Overseas Territories. Early flags that
were used across the empire were just variations of the red and blue ensign of Great Britain
with no colonial badges or court of arms attached to them. It was only from the 19th century onwards
that the first colonies started to acquire their own badges. In fact, in the 1860s
legislation was passed by the UK Parliament to allow and encourage colonies to do this
And before this happened, they either simply used the Union Jack or they used the flag of the East
India Company, a field of red and white stripes with the British flag on the top left, something
which perhaps originated the tendency in future colonial flags. India is a great example of this
From 1733 to 1858, it used the East India Company flag. In 1858, they switched to the Union Jack
alone, and it was only in 1880 that they switched to a red colonial ensign with the star of India
on the right, also having a blue variant. Canada was the same. They started with the red for the
civil ensign while the local government used blue. And until 1965 when Canada changed to their current
flag this was still the case. Despite the more popular usage and recognition of the red, blue
was the official government flag for a lot of British colonies. Now why did they use different
colors in the background? The fact that we associate certain old colonies with blue flags
or red flags, I think simply has to do with the habit that that region had of using a specific
flag, making it so that it was identified with it. But why did these different colored flags exist
Some of them were red, some were blue, there was also apparently white and green, but white was
only used for the British Antarctic Territory and green was only briefly used for Irish ships
But let's focus on red and blue. The red, blue ensigns were associated with different squadrons
in the Royal Navy until 1864, when each was assigned to a different category of naval vessels
The white was assigned to military ones, for instance, and the blue was given to vessels
employed by public offices, while the red was given to everything else. So this difference
which existed in ships, seems to have transferred itself to land. Blue was reserved for state use
only, just like the public office's ship, while the civil ensign was in red and everyone
was allowed to use that one Australia is a great example of this Since the original flag of 1901 they simultaneously had blue and red flags Blue was for the state and red for the civil
ensign, even though today the flag is blue and blue is the color that we associate with it
The Bahamas and Barbados had the same thing happen, while others, like Cyprus
always used blue and some, like Tanganyika, only used red. There were, however, some exceptions
which used a different field, not red or blue, with the Union Jack Canton, such as Eligoland
Grenada, the Malay states or the Indian Ocean Territory. And there was also the case of British
protectorates like Bahrain, which continued to use their own flag despite being somewhat under
British control. In addition to the colonial ensigns, each region also had the governor's flag
a Union Jack with a local badge in the center, a trend which remains in today's British embassies
and consulates. The governor flag is a good transition for the next country on the list
Portugal. The flag I used on the thumbnail was the flag of the Portuguese colony's governor
general, a white field, two green stripes, and three symbols in the center, the cross of the
order of Christ, the armillary sphere, and the Portuguese coat of arms. The governor of Macau
Portugal's colony city in China used a similar version except with vertical stripes. And it
seems that the Portuguese didn't really have the habit of using specific colonial flags for their
territory. Emphasis on flags because apparently they preferred using coats of arms and used them
to represent both the territories as well as the local governors which ruled them. And then they
then used the national flag to represent the empire and its colonies, and later the country
and its overseas territories. I found a few proposals for local colonial flags consisting
of the national flag plus the colony's shield, but apparently these were never officially used
We can however take a look at the shields of some of the many Portuguese territories
throughout their colonial empire, many of which contain the Portuguese five-dotted shield symbol
on the left with a white background and wavy green lines. This was apparently the template
which each colony filling in this left portion with their own symbols and colors. Angola had the
added purple field with a golden elephant and zebra. Cape Verde had a Nao on a green field
The Indian territories had a golden field with a red tower and a black wheel. Guinea had a golden
scepter on a black field, Macau had a golden Chinese dragon on top of blue amongst many others
Ceylon consisted of a silver elephant and four palm trees and Brazil was a pau-brazil tree in
green with a black cross up top. It seems Brazil also had a specific flag, a white field with a
golden armillary sphere, a blue circle and a red cross on top of it, which could be the origin point
for those emblems in the first independent Brazil flag. But I don't know if this was an official usage flag or not
Belgium is also a briefcase to look at because its colonies consisted only of two locations
the Belgian Congo and Rwanda-Urundi. Oh, and I also found out about a small concession in China
from 1902 to 1931 in what is now Tianjin. I had no idea about this
But it seems that there was no unique local flag and they simply flew the Belgian tricolor
The same happened in Rwanda-Urundi, although they had a coat of arms
what seems to be a traditional African shield, four spears, and then a blue golden bird on top
and a golden tiger below it. The Belgian Congo was the only colony
which had their own flag, a blue field with a golden star in the center
whose origin lies in the flag of the International African Association, An organization hosted by the Belgian king formed with the aim of establishing their
rule in the continent. Right next to Belgium and Europe are the Netherlands
However, they never shared colonial borders, as far as I know. The Dutch colonial empire was very similar to the Portuguese in certain aspects
In fact, they actually took a few lands off the Portuguese empire, but that's a topic
for another time. It was similar to the Portuguese because they focused more on trade outposts instead of
full-on territorial expansion and control. The Portuguese had the Feitorias and the Dutch had the Dutch East India Company outposts
some of which they called Handelsposten And so we can argue that the main flag flown for the Dutch colonial empire was the flag of the Dutch East India Company which consisted of their national flag with the
symbol in black on top of the central white stripe. The symbol were the letters V-O-C
which meant Verenigde Ostindigte Compagnie, which means the United East India Company
the official name of the enterprise. However, they did use some other region-specific colonial flags
In Bali, they used a flag with many white, red, and blue stripes. The same happened in Sumatra
although switching the order and the blue with green. In Siak, they used a blue field with what
looks like the Indonesian flag in the center. In Dutch Brazil, they used the national flag with a
crown on top and below a golden monogram, although I couldn't find the meaning of these initials
Today, some Dutch overseas territories have both territorial flags and governor's standards
like Aruba, Sint Maarten, or the Netherlands and Thiels. But these were only adapted recently in the 20th century
The same happens with the now non-existent Dutch New Guinea, which had its own flag from
1949 to 1962. Germany is next, and as we know, they lost their entire colonial empire in the early
20th century. But before that, they had significant possessions in both Africa and Asia Oceania
Now, it's important to note that from my understanding, none of these were official and simply proposals
There were six of them. Each of them consisting of the imperial German flag with a coat of arms representative of the colony in the center
I think it's a similar case as the Portuguese one. The imperial flag was used globally while specific coats of arms represented each region
Now, in retrospect, we create proposed flags joining the two. Germany East Africa would consist of a red shield with a silver lion
Cameroon would replace the lion with an elephant. New Guinea shows a green field with a golden blue bird of some kind
Samoa is represented by three silver palm trees. West Africa, a blue shield with a silver ball and star above it
And Togoland, a tree with a snake on each side in tones of green and black
There are also apparently some more official flags for a few Pacific Islands
The Iralic Islands used this tricolor in the German Imperial Colors, but with a different stripe organization
Moving on to France. France's colonial empire was also tremendously big. They had possessions in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific, the Americas
and they had specific flags for pretty much all of these places
But unlike the British, they didn't follow one specific trend. Instead, I think we can identify three types of French colonial flags
The cantons, which were a normal specific flag for the territory, with a French national flag on the top left corner
differing in size and even placement depending on each flag. The defaced French flags, which consisted of the actual national flag
with some type of regional symbol on either the blue or white stripe
Or the full-on regional flags, which consisted of no symbol of French rule
despite still being French protectorates and domains, although some were stylized in French
colors, but I'm not sure if this was on purpose or not. A few examples of the Canton flags are the
flag of Anam, Laos, Togo, Gabon, Tunisia, some Middle Eastern regions, Morocco, Tahiti, the French
Congo, amongst others, and we could see throughout them that the size of the Canton changed a lot
Examples of the defaced national flag are the flag of Lebanon, Montanard, the Thai Autonomous
Territory, French Sudan, Wallace and Fortuna, and others. While the third category is demonstrated
for instance in the flag of Cambodia, French Senegal, Upper Volta, Madagascar, Thai Don
Algeria, Sipsong, etc. With Algeria, Sipsong, and Madagascar being the examples of French
color schemes. Today, France remains having some of their overseas territories, and most of these
consist of a local flag with a French canton, such as the French Southern and Antarctic Islands
the flag of Sigave, Aloe, French Polynesia, etc. In fact, the flag of the Minister of Overseas
France consists of a plubling field with a French flag in the top left corner. Moving on to Spain
Now, Spain is the biggest case of single flag usage as far as I know
From all the information I could find they didn have specific flags for any of their colonial regions Instead they just had their own national flag plus an imperial standard the flag of New Spain a red burgundy cross on a white field Eventually as the
international Spanish national flag changed, the flag of the colonies did as well. The Philippines
are a good example of this. From 1565 to 1821, they were a part of New Spain and flew the Burgundy
Cross banner. And then in 1821, becoming part of the Spanish East Indies along with Formosa
they used the new Spanish national flag. Very similar to the one we know today. In the Americas
Spain's domains were divided into captaincies. However, their flags seem to not have changed
much. They all started with the White Field and Red Burgundy Cross and then as Spain got a new
national flag, they implemented that one as well. A bicolor of red and gold with the coat of arms of
Spain on the left. The only location-specific representation I could find were the coat of arms
of three of the captaincies. Guatemala had this one, a knight following a group of soldiers on
the top half of the shield with a bottom depicting three mountains, the center of which being a
volcano. New Granada had this fantastic black eagle holding two red fruits in each ball. And
Puerto Rico had a seal with a crown star and two branches and the star could be the origin of the
one on their modern flag. In Africa, they ruled a part of Morocco, which during the times of the
Spanish Protectorate flew only a regional merchant ensign, red with a green canton and white Moroccan
star, while Spanish West Africa and Guinea simply flew the Spanish National Ensign. Today, Spain's
only two remaining overseas territories in Africa are Melilla and Siltah. Melilla's flag is a blue
field a Spanish-style shield on top of a green dragon and inside it are two baskets of snakes
I have no idea what this means. Cilta's flag is a very curious case which I've previously mentioned
on the channel. Its background is equal to the municipal flag of Portugal's capital city of
Lisbon and the shield is also Portuguese. This is because it was a previous Portuguese possession
which the Spanish gained during a time of dynastic union and kept upon Portugal's regained
independence, also maintaining its Portuguese-style flag. And finally, Italy. Italy never had a
tremendously large colonial empire. They ruled part of Eritrea and Somalia, then conquering
Ethiopia too and ruling Libya. Their rule also stretched to the Daudekanese Islands near Turkey
and Greece, and also to a concession in China. However, none of these really had their own flag
either. The islands used the Italian Kingdom flag, having their own coat of arms, this white cross
on a red field. Eritrea and Somalia used the same flag, each with their own coat of arms as well
Eritrea had this gray and blue shield with a red lion and white star, while Somalia had this red
blue, and gray one, consisting also of three gray stars and a golden leopard. When Italy conquered
Ethiopia, they merged it with the two territories and formed Italian East Africa, keeping the kingdom
flag but adding a new coat of arms which joined all of these occupied territories. Libya was
exactly the same. Having its own coat of arms, up top the symbols of Italy at the time and below
the shield is divided in two. On the left, Tripolitana is represented through the palm tree
and on the right, the territory of Seda Naica through what seems to be some type of plant as
well. I also found two additional flags of the Viceroy of Italian East Africa and the colonial
governor's flag. Both of them in white with a simplified royal coat of arms in the center
while the viceroy's banner also had a blue frame. So that is a general overview
at the colonial flags of European countries and how these colonial powers represented themselves
in those territories. It's important to say that many of the people
in the now previous colonies most likely didn't feel at all represented by these flags
as they were the symbols of their colonizers who oppressed them and explored their land
for resources both human and natural. In a lot of cases, there were previous symbols
of regional or cultural identity which may have remained even during colonial times as ways of the
locals truly representing themselves while the flag and coat of arms we saw here merely represented
the rulers. But that was the point of the video. Thanks so much for watching this video, leave a
comment if you want and maybe share your favorite colonial flag out of all of these and which
country style you prefer. Subscribe if you want to catch future videos and I will see you next time
for more general knowledge