Flags are very important symbols in our days. They have the power to represent causes, ideologies and even the will to create a new country. In this video we will tell you the best curiosities about flags in a design level, and also, the best stories and conflicts that have had flags as protagonists.
But first, don't forget to subscribe to our channel and enable notifications. National flags are not only used for the Olympic Games podiums, but they have been present in great events of modern history. For example, the great symbol of the man's arrival to the moon that the Americans wanted to leave was exactly their famous flag.
Or the photo of the battle of Iwo Jima, one of the great symbols of the Second World War. The Danish, meanwhile, proudly brag their flag, which is the oldest in the world among the ones that are still in use. It flames continuously since 1219, and this year will be no less than eight hundred years.
Not only is the oldest, but it served as inspiration to several of its neighboring countries. The flags of Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland have a similar design. They all have the so-called Scandinavian cross, located towards the margin near the mast.
Even England respects this template. Of course it is no accident, they come from a common root. It's all about the cross of St.
Olaf, who was a Viking king who converted to Catholicism and spread this religion through Scandinavia in the 11th century But these similarities between flags are not only seen in this region. In Latin America, for example, we have two cases of flag families. One is from Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador: the flags of these countries have horizontal stripes yellow, blue and red, in the same order.
The differences are that Venezuela included stars and Ecuador, a shield. But of course this is not a coincidence, it's just that these countries were part of Great Colombia from the independence of Spain. Then they split up, but they preserved the national symbol that Francisco de Miranda had created.
Something similar happens in Central America with the flags of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala, which were part of the Federal Republic of Central America. In turn, this badge is a tribute to the argentinian flag since this country collaborated in the struggle for independence. In other parts of the world we also see similarities, either in shapes or in colors.
In the Far East, for example, we see circles on the flags of Japan, Laos, India, Bangladesh, South Korea, North Korea and Palau. In Eastern Europe we see flags with three horizontal stripes of the same colors, white blue and red. It is the case of Russia, Slovenia, Slovakia and Serbia.
In the Middle East we found the cases of Jordan, Palestine, United Arab Emirates and Kuwait: they all use horizontal stripes with a figure on the mast and the same four colors. Oceania doesn't fall behind: not only those from Australia and New Zealand are similar, but Tuvalu and Fiji also join British heritage On the Atlantic coast of Africa there are the cases of Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Benin, Mali and Guinea Bissau. In all cases, yellow, red and green in wide stripes.
In addition, several add a star. But there are more flags that have designs and similar colors, and they are even in far places from the map. Romania and Chad, where only the shade of blue, varies.
Liechtenstein and Haiti. In this case they realized that they were the same in the 1936 Olympic Games, so Europeans added a crown. Indonesia and Monaco.
Indonesian one is a bit longer. And you can add the one from Poland, which is similar but inverts the colors. Bolivia and Ghana, where a shield becomes a star Costa Rica and Thailand, where the red and the blue are exchanged.
India and Niger, which are separated by the symbol from the center. Ireland and Ivory Coast, where the green and the orange are inverted, And also, Italy and Mexico, that adds its coat of arms in the center. If we continue with the curiosities about designs, it's impossible not to think about the flag of Seychelles, one of the most striking.
But not only because of its shape, but because we can see it as the sum of the flags from Hungary and Romania. All the flags of the world, for example, have at least red, white or blue in any of their shades. There are only two exceptions: Jamaica and Sri Lanka.
On the contrary, there is a color that shines by its absence. We are talking about violet, also known as purple. Until the 19th century it was very difficult to get this color.
It was associated with royalty and was a luxury. But, later, could be done chemically, so today for us it is just one more color. However, it was immortalized in just two flags One is Dominica's one, which has in the center its typical bird, a parrot.
And the other is a minimal touch: the flag of Nicaragua has a rainbow in the center and one of the stripes is violet. As for the proportions, those of Switzerland and the Vatican are the only ones squared. On the contrary, Qatar's is the longest, with a ratio of 11:28.
And there is only one that is not rectangular, the one of Nepal. It is formed by two triangles, representing the Himalayas and its two religions, Buddhism and Hinduism. On the other hand, there is only one that is not the same front and back, the one of Paraguay.
If we see it from the front, it has a shield with olive branches surrounding a star. On the back, however, it has a lion and the inscription "Peace and Justice". On a cultural level, one of the most impressive it's the one from Mozambique, the only one that has a weapon of war.
It is an AK-47 gun and represents the determination of the people to achieve their freedom. Nor can we stop mentioning the flag from Belize, that is the only one that has people. There is a Creole and a mestizo, they represent the people.
The one from the Philippines has its own magic. It exchanges the blue and red stripes if the country is in time of war. The famous flag of the United Kingdom, formerly known as Union Jack, is the conjunction of the flags of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Although it also represents the Welsh, but the dragon's flag was left out, since when the badge was created, Wales belonged to England. Beyond all these curiosities related to history and design, we have had great anecdotes linked to the flags, although some with dire results. The president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, had the great idea to show this image to his American peer, Donald Trump.
Not only can we have objections about the content of this message, but he had to make a big change to the United States flag, since he had to reverse the red stripes and white to achieve the desired effect. Another case was the confusion of the singer of Muse during a recital they gave in Argentina. From the public he was given a flag, and he did not notice that it was the one of the country he was in, it was the Uruguayan.
The public complained, but it didn't escalated to bigger issues either. What did have great consequences was the story between Drzen Petrovic and Vlade Divac. It's about two basketball players who shined in the NBA during the 90s.
They played together in the Yugoslavia team who was world champion in 1990. While both represented that country, Petrovic was from Croatia and Divac, from Serbia. In the celebrations after getting the cup in the World Cup in Argentina, a descendant of Croatians celebrated with a flag of his nation.
Divac despised the flag and threw it down, which generated great outrage by Petrovic. From there, Petrovic and Divac, which were great friends, never talked to each other again. The story would end tragically.
In 1993 Petrovic died in a car accident and never got to reconcile. Which of these stories or curiosities did you find them more incredible? Do you remember any about your country?
We await your comment below.
