Whose flag is blue-yellow-red?

On our planet there are more than 250 states, each of which has its own national flag. As a rule, it consists of strips or other geometric figures of different colors, symbolizing something important for a particular country. But since there are many states, the flags sometimes repeat each other. For example, a blue-yellow-red flag, whose is it? There can be at least two answers to this question.

Where did the flags come from?

The tradition originated several centuries ago and has its roots to the times of maritime powers. The colorful flags of the flags gradually moved from sea ships to land ports, and then to entire states. Presumably, the first country that had its flag was Holland (Netherlands), whose naval and merchant fleets were the most powerful in the 17th-18th centuries. At the same time, a standard appeared for the use of a rectangular shape for the flag.

Gradually, the tradition spread to all countries of the world. The first to acquire the flags of the major powers. And then the former colonies, getting independence, began to choose their state symbols.

Gypsy cloths

But, since independent states and self-governing territories became more numerous every decade, the creation of the original symbol became an increasingly difficult task. As a result, the flags of many countries in the world turned out to be similar. And some in general can hardly be distinguished. For example, the blue-yellow-red flag is vertical. It turns out that it is used by two countries in the world: Romania and Chad.

However, there is a slight difference: the tricolor of Chad differs by a darker shade of the blue band. In other respects, the flags are identical.

History of the flag of Romania

The Romanian symbol was first approved on June 26, 1848, and was used during the Valash uprising in 1821. The flag blue-yellow-red has a rather ancient origin. According to many historians, these three colors played an important role in the Romanian heraldry of the XV-XVI centuries, during the reign of Stephen the Great and Mihai Brave.

Noteworthy is the fact that the original tricolor stripes were located horizontally. This was done in imitation of the flag of France, which became very popular in Europe after the Great French Revolution. For this reason, the new flag became a symbol of the revolutionary changes in Romania.

The values of the colored bands were established as follows: blue - freedom, yellow - justice, red - brotherhood. Since 1867, they were no longer horizontal, as on the French standard, but vertically. This served as a symbol of the unification of the three lands - Wallachia, Moldavia and Bukovina - into a single state. Thus, the flag of blue-yellow-red began to combine the heraldic colors of these territories.

This transformation of the flag did not end: from 1867 to 1989 in the center of the tricolor was the socialist coat of arms, which was abolished during the revolution and the overthrow of the dictatorship of Ceausescu. The flag of blue-yellow-red with the emblem carved from it became a symbol of those events. The modern version of the Romanian standard was fixed at the end of 1989.

History of the Chad Flag

This Central African country gained independence in 1958, and was formerly a colony of France. Curiously, the first two years the new state continued to officially use the flag of the former metropolis - the French tricolor. Then the projects of a new national symbol were proposed. It was originally intended to use the colors of the unified Pan-African flag (red, black, green), but this idea was decided to be abandoned because it was already taken for itself by other former colonies of France. As a result, the Republic of Chad approved the blue-yellow-red flag, in which the first vertical strip symbolizes water and hope, the second - the sun and sand of the desert, and the third - the spilled blood and the unity of the nation.

Thus, the similarity of the flags of Romania and Chad is due to the French influence in different epochs. And although the coloration of the flag of the European country was invented earlier than the African, still the current version of the Romanian tricolor was established 30 years later, therefore, the countries do not have legal claims.