European Countries' Colonial Flags

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 fall 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 he 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 forms 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 tenancy in future colonial flags India is a great example of this from 1733 to 1858 it used that 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 variety 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 colours 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 public offices 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 happened 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 whether blue with the Union Jack Kenton such as illegal and Grenada de Mille I 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 in science each region also had the governor's flag a Union Jack with the local badge in the centre 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 colonies governor-general a white field two green stripes and three symbols in the centre the Cross of the order of Christ the armillary sphere and the Portuguese coat of arms the governor of Macau Portugal's colonies 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 use them to represent both the territories as well as the local governors which rule 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 colonies 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 contained if Portuguese five dated shield symbol on the left with a white background and wavy green lines this was apparently the template which each colleague filling in this left portion with their own symbols and colors Angola had the added purple filled with a golden elephant and zebra leopard had an owl 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 pal 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 flat but I don't know if this was an official usage flag or not Belgium is also a brief case to look at because its colonies consisted only of two locations the Belgian Congo and Rwanda Burundi 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 tricolour the same happened in Rwanda Burundi although they had a coat of arms what seems to be a traditional African shield for 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 or the 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 in 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 of the Portuguese Empire but that's a topic for another time it was similar the Portuguese because they focused more on trade outposts instead of full-on territorial expansion and control the Portuguese had the fetish and the Dutch had the Dutch East India Company outposts some of which they called handles pasta 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 a symbol and black on top of the central white stripe the symbol were the letters V o C which meant Veronique de Austin dict Company which means the United leased 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 SIOC they used a blue field with what looks like the Indonesian flag in the centre 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 standards like Aruba Sint Maarten or the Netherlands and teals 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 centre I think it's a similar case as the Portuguese won the Imperial flag was used globally while specific coats of arms represented each region now in retrospect we create proposed Flags joining the two German East Africa would consist of a red shield with a silver lion cameroon will 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 bull 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 Uralic Islands used this tricolour in the German imperial colors but with a different stripe organization moving on to France Frances 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 Canton's 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 that effaced 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 protectorate 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 or the flag of UNAM Lao 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 or the flag of Lebanon Montanaro the thai autonomous territory French Sudan Wallis and Futuna and others while the third category is demonstrated for instance in the flag of Cambodia French Senegal Upper Volta Madagascar tied on Algeria sip song etc with Algeria sip song AmeriGas car 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 the French Canton such as the French southern and and Eric Islands the flag of C Java allo French Polynesia etc in fact the flag of the minister of overseas France consists of a blue plane filled 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't 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 that 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 what a coat of arms of three of the captain sees what Amala had this one a night following a group of soldiers on the top half of the shield with the bottom depicting three mountains the center of which being a volcano New Granada had this fantastic black eagle holding two red fruits in each Bowl in 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 enzyme red with a green Canton and white Moroccan store while Spanish West Africa and Guinea simply flew the Spanish National ensign today Spain's only two remaining overseas territories in Africa or Melilla and silt'e Mae Lila's flag is a blue field a spanish-style shield on top of a green dragon and inside it or two baskets of snakes I have no idea what this means Santa's Flagg 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 - and ruling Libya their rule also stretched to the third decan Eze 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 Tripoli Tana is represented through the palm tree and on the right the territory of satanica through what seems to be some type of plant as well I also found two additional flags of the white soy of Italian East Africa and a colonial governor's flag both of them in white with a simplified royal coat of arms in the center while the Viceroy 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 explore 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

Channel: General Knowledge

Views: 458,811

Keywords: generalknowledge, funwithflags, countriesthatdon'texist

Id: T8lPVJOsaM4

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 03 2020