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You’re on the podium.
The whole world is watching as you are presented your medal and your national anthem starts to play.
Also, your country’s flag - the nation whose colours you represent, whose pride you embody…
Is being flown in honour of your achievement.
Why?
Why a flag?
Why not a sign with your country’s name on it?
Or a stick with some animal on top?
Let’s look at the origins of national flags.
National flags do not have a fixed point in time when someone, now famous, invented them.
They came about, evolving from earlier ideas.
It’s most likely that flags, as we know them, developed from the military standard.
Standards probably originated in Ancient Egypt about 3,000 years ago…
…and were - amongst others - used by the Roman Empire as part of their large armies.
Roman armies had various standards, such as the signum, the aquila,…
…And the vexillum - which is where we got the word vexillology from…
…The study of flags.
The vexillum was a square piece of woven fabric, hanging from a crossbar, carried on a pole.
The loss of any standard was considered an embarrassment, the aquila, especially.
Flags recognised as such, and not as banners, probably originated in Asia,...
...either India or China.
It is mentioned that the founder of the Zhou dynasty had a white flag carried before him.
Chinese flags were adorned with a bird, tiger or dragon.
Likewise, as with a military standard, the fall of a flag meant defeat.
In ancient India, flags had similar importance, being carried on chariots and elephants.
…The fall of a flag, here, too, meant defeat or at least confusion during battle.
They were often triangular, with red or green, and a figure embroidered in gold.
National flags as we know them today, were most likely originated by islamic people:
In the Middle Ages called Saracens.
As Islam prohibits the use of idolatrous images, they used greatly simplified flags using black,
white, green or red.
These early flags found their way to Europe, where the first national flags were adopted
in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
In Europe, flags already existed in many forms, such as banners, pennons, streamers and of course...
...standards.
Flags were used for many things. But the idea of a national flag was new and took hold;
The Cross of Saint George being adopted as England’s flag, in the 13th century, ...
...being a famous example.
Later combining it with the Cross of Saint Andrew, and the Cross of Saint Patrick,...
...to form the Union Flag.
Kings, countries, organisations, cities, guilds all started to adopt flags.
From this point on national flags increasingly became part of nations’ identities.
Some flags were based on heraldry, on religious symbolism or something else entirely.
The red-white-and-blue Dutch flag became synonymous with liberty and republican government,...
...due to its long war for independence from Spain.
France adopted the same colours following the French Revolution.
Other countries would also adopt the three colours to express equal principles.
The Soviet Union flew a red flag with hammer and sickle, solidifying the colour’s association...
...with communism.
Than there are the flags of predominantly Muslim countries, using mostly traditional colours.
And there are more families of flags.
We’ll cover these and other types of flags in future episodes.
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You can find sources for more in-depth information in the description.
Thank you for watching.