Why Countries Change Their Flags

august 15th 1947 the great symbol of the british empire came down for the last time to be replaced by the banner of the new indian government [Music] in 1947 india wasted no time in removing all union jacks that flew across their land the british flag had represented those who ruled the country not the people who actually lived there and call it their home in its place india raised its very own tricolour flag which was designed by an indian man to represent the people of the country the changing of the flag was a somewhat ceremonial event but it signified something much greater india had achieved independence and was finally its own country after decades of struggle against colonial rule a country changing its flag is not all that uncommon which can be done for a variety of different reasons and it's not always quite as obvious as in the case of india the first country we're going to look at is actually another former british colony but with a very different past south africa unlike india south africa actually didn't even change its flag when the country became fully independent in 1931. it wasn't until 1994 that south africa adopted its current flag in this case the reason for the change was an end to what was called apartheid the systematic segregation and oppression of the country's non-white population how this came to be all goes back to colonial times when southern africa was a region that was hotly contested between the british and the dutch the dutch were the first to arrive in 1652 with the establishment of cape colony many more settlers arrived over the next few decades over time these earliest european settlers would develop their own identity and language becoming known as the burrs the british took over cape collie in 1806 causing many of these birds to trek inland and find new dwellings they established two of their own republics the south african republic also known as transvaal as well as the orange free state there were other republics but these were the two that managed to achieve international recognition in the 1860s and 1880s massive diamond and gold deposits were found in the region these discoveries would lay the foundation for what would later become apartheid more immediately though it led to two wars between the british and the burs as they lay claim to the lucrative land the brits would ultimately come out on top annexing the brewer republics in 1910 all of these territories including the natal colony on the east coast were merged into one single dominion called the union of south africa the country had experienced a period of rapid industrialization thanks to the incredible wealth that was extracted from the land the local african population was used as a source of cheap labor which kept corporate profits high black workers were often subject to strip searches to ensure there was no theft white workers didn't face the same scrutiny and humiliation in 1913 an act of parliament restricted the black population from owning land outside of specifically designated reserves these were generally away from population centres and in less developed areas some time later south africa adopted its own flag in 1928. the main component of the flag is an orange white and blue tri-colour that was an old dutch flag under prince william of orange then there are three smaller flags in the center the union jack plus the two former burr republics the dominant political party in south africa was the national party made up of the descendants of the burs although by this point they were more commonly referred to as afrikaners given their history with the british the africana majority did not want a union jack on the flag but discussions became heated with the british descendant minority so it was put in as a compromise the whole of the parliament was made up of those of european descent likewise only white people were allowed to vote in elections 1948 is often viewed as the beginning of apartheid when the national party began passing laws of segregation based upon a person's race people were split into four different racial groups white indian colored basically mixed race and at the bottom black the native african population was given the least amount of rights of any of the groups it was the white population that enjoyed the most rights and privileges the population became segregated by which towns people were allowed to live in what hospitals were allowed to go to who they were allowed to marry and where the kids were allowed to go to school white institutions were always better funded while black institutions were often given the bare minimum to get by or sometimes not even that in the 1950s the african national congress or the anc an organization for african nationalism and racial equality began a defiance campaign against apartheid laws the non-white population was encouraged to purposefully break apartheid laws thousands were arrested and harsher punishments were put in place among the most abhorred laws were the various past laws in which all non-white people were required to carry passes basically like internal passports everywhere they went a person's race dictated where they could and couldn't go pastors were required to be carried at all times a protest against these laws in 1960 in sharpville caused the police to open fire on a crowd of protesters killing 69 people up until this point the anc had tried to achieve their goals through peaceful means but this changed everything the anc soon adopted a military wing founded by a young nelson mandela the group was forced underground after the group was banned and several anc leaders were sentenced to life in prison including mandela the following decades had their ups and downs the struggle against oppression never stopped though the anc faced many setbacks through a combination of internal rebellion plus now external pressure from a world that had grown less and less tolerant of racial segregation apartheid came to an end after 27 years behind bars nelson mandela was released from prison as the country entered a period of transition he then went on to become president in the 1994 general election the first election in the country's history that allowed people of all races to vote and this was when the country changed its flag this was when the country went through a major change the new flag features six different colours black green and gold the colours of the anc and more broadly pan-africanism plus red white and blue the colours of the dutch flag and the british flag the government has stated that no specific meaning should be assigned to each colour the y-shape's official meaning is the convergence of diverse elements within south african society taking the road ahead in unity the old flag is now banned from public display in south africa excluding certain specific circumstances like in museums the flag carries many negative connotations for the vast majority of south africans it's become a symbol of oppression and segregation so much so that is sometimes referred to as the apartheid flag the horrible events that took place during apartheid have become so inextricably linked to this flag that was flown during that time flying this flag can be seen as an act of hate speech or racism because there's the implication that if you fly the flag you condone what happened during the time of its use it would be easy to drop parallel with another controversial flag the confederate flag over in the united states many claim it to be a racist flag a symbol of hate while some people in the south argue that the flag is simply part of their heritage in the case of this flag the confederate states were fighting against the union over states rights and in particular states rights to own slaves up until as recently as 2020 the flag of mississippi featured a confederate battle flag in the canton but has now been removed many statues of confederate generals were also removed all across the south around the same time these changes were motivated by the murder of george floyd and the subsequent protests by the black lives matter movement while we're on the subject of the united states let's talk about the star-spangled banner the american flag is actually the national flag that has been changed most often of any country of yet mostly minor changes the first ever flag of the us actually had a union jack on it although this was quickly changed for obvious reasons in 1777 just one year after the declaration of independence it was established that the u.s flag would feature 13 white stars on a blue field with 13 alternating red and white stripes both the 13 stars and stripes were for the 13 colonies that declared independence from great britain the instructions though were rather vague there was no comment about how the stars should be arranged it was therefore left up to individual flag makers at the time certainly the most iconic flag was the stars arranged in a circle this is called the betsy ross flag the story goes that george washington visited the upholsterer in philadelphia and she sketched a new design for the flag however historians have mostly dismissed this origin of the flag given that the first known account of this interaction wasn't until 1870 by her grandson nearly a century after the fact other interpretations include the francis hopkinson flag who was actually one of the secretaries of the declaration of independence his design has a star arrangement more akin to the modern flag rather than a radically different circular arrangement of the betsy ross there was also the john trumbull design featured in many iconic paintings of the revolution which were commissioned directly by congress this features a 12 star square with one star in the middle fast forward to 1795 when vermont and kentucky joined the union and the new flag was completely unique among all other us flags and that this flag actually had 15 strikes along with also 15 stars however after five more states joined the union it probably became clear that adding a new stripe for every state would get very messy very quickly and the flag reverted back to 13 stripes five more stars were added though and this became the convention of adding stars to the us flag based on the number of states if we don't count alternate designs for flags with the same number of stars for example this 33 star abomination then by my count the country has changed its flag 27 times the current 50 star flag has been in use for 62 years now longer than any other flag in the country's history the last change was when hawaii became a state in 1960 of course this might not be the flag forever there are two more potential candidates for future states puerto rico and the district of columbia both have held referendums and voted in favour of statehood however admission to the union must be passed by congress and there doesn't seem to be any indication of that happening anytime soon regardless there are already unofficial 51 and 52 star flags designed just in case moving over to europe now we find several examples of countries that have changed their flag let's take a look at germany the country used to have a black white and red tri-colour but today uses a black red and gold one so why the change well although the german identity culture and language have been around for as much as a thousand years it wasn't actually until 1871 when germany became a unified country for the first time this wasn't an easy accomplishment after 1815 the congress of vienna established a german confederation a loose organization of the various german states that had historically been part of the holy roman empire it was actually around this time that the earliest version of the modern flag began to take shape during the 1848 revolutions which took place all across europe the black red and gold tricolour was flown as a symbol of liberty and democracy these same three colours were used by the frankfurt parliament the first attempt to establish a unified german state though is ultimately unsuccessful although there were many different german states there were really two that overshadowed the rest prussia and austria they were by far the two most powerful and they had a long-running rivalry when this came to a head in the austro-prussian war the northern states joined prussia while the southern states joined austria prussia won the war and established the northern german confederation comprised of the vectors of the war prussia used the colours black and white and many northern german cities had been part of what was called the hanseatic league it was a medieval economic and military alliance of sorts it used the colours white and red and indeed many cities in the north used white and red as well these colours of prussia and the hanseatic league were combined to form the black white and red flag that was used from the 1860s until 1918 and the end of world war one the northern confederation was not the first unified german state however since it still excluded most of the southern states that had allied themselves with austria if there's one thing that can bring people together though it's a common enemy this happened to be the french the franco-prussian war in 1870 united all german states to help fight against the french some historians have suggested that the german chancellor otto von bismarck actually provoked the french on purpose in order to achieve the goal of uniting germany however true this actually is we'll never know but that was the outcome prussia won and the german empire proclaimed in 1871 in the palace of versailles just outside of paris the notable exclusion from this newly formed empire was austria so this tri-color was used until 1918 at which point the weimar republic was established and went back to the colours from the 1848 revolution of black red and gold this didn't last long though as the nazi party took over in 1933 and soon replaced the national flag with the party's swastika flag and finally after world war ii and the division of germany both east and west opted for a black red and gold tri-colour same as the weimar republic initially both flags were identical but in 1959 east germany added their communist court of arms to the flag this was seen in west germany as a way of intentionally dividing the two germans the old flag is rarely seen today although it has been somewhat appropriated by certain neo-nazi groups as a substitute for the swastika which is completely banned from public display in the country regardless the colours definitely remain especially for organizations that were formed before 1918. just look at the german football team for example the main color of their strip is white this white comes from the colour of prussia the dominant german kingdom that led the way to united germany many other european countries have changed their flag spain used to have a very different flag a white flag with a red cross this is actually called the burgundy cross which may seem odd given that burgundy is a region of france this wasn't always the case however centuries ago the burgundian lands stretched into what's today belgium and the netherlands at the time known as the low countries through inheritance and political marriage these ended up in the hands of the powerful austrian royal family the habsburgs phil the first duke of burgundy married joanna of castillo thus introducing the flag to the iberian peninsula in reality this was a time before the very idea of a national flag even existed and indeed spain was yet to become a unified country but this flag can sort of be thought of as the first flag of spain and was widely used during their colonization of the new world an example of this can be seen today in the flag of florida which uses a similar design with a state seal in the middle the first iteration of the modern flag was adopted in 1785 just across the border portugal changed its flag from blue and white to red and green historically portugal's colors had always been blue and white but when the country had a republican revolution in 1910 the political party that was behind the revolution used the colours green and red since many of the revolutionaries were among those who redesigned the flag these colours were integrated into the new flag and of course the crown was also removed since green and red didn't have any historical significance for portugal they were given meanings that would instill a sense of nationalism the green was said to represent the hope of the nation and the red for the blood of those who died defending the country this symbolism was to shift the flag from the specific politics of the republican party to a nationalist symbol for the whole country moving over to asia let's take a look at another controversial flag japan's rising sun flag the design used on the flag can be found in japanese art as far back as the 1820s and the rising sun has long been an important part of japanese culture so much so that the name of the country in japanese nippon literally means sun's origin which is often translated into english as land of the rising sun however this flag is most commonly associated with japanese imperialism during world war ii and especially the atrocities committed under this flag the controversy surrounding this flag is that it's actually still used even to this day and can sometimes be seen in parades or on ships many countries in asia find the use of this flag offensive in particular south korea in 2018 japan pulled out of a 15 country naval exercise because korea demanded japan not fly the rising sun flag japan refused and in the lead up to the 2020 tokyo olympics soul protested to the ioc to ban the flag from display during the event the flag was indeed banned although this video is about countries changing their flag japan is actually the opposite they didn't change their flag japan's current flag has always been the primary flag for as long as the country has had a flag the meiji government adopted the hinumaru as it's known in 1870 as the civil flag of japan to be flown on merchant ships in the very same year the rising sun flag was adopted as a war flag to be used on military vessels this distinction between a civil flag and a military flag has mostly remained unchanged in the last 150 years the hiromaru is the flag of the country while two slightly different variations of the rising sun flag are used for japan's navy and army japan has defended its use of the flag citing the fact that it was used long before world war ii and it's an important part of japanese culture and history a national flag can be changed for any number of reasons for some countries it offers a window into the country's past a change of flag is often accompanied by a change to the country itself whether it be something minor or a defining moment in the country's history if you're a regular viewer of mine 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Channel: WonderWhy

Views: 277,619

Keywords: wonderwhy, flags, apartheid, south africa, germany

Id: IkqDHaljJIY

Length: 22min 20sec (1340 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 31 2022