Flags of the World: Horizontal Bands/Stripes

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United States

There was supposed to be 1 stripe and 1 star in the American "Stars and Stripes" flag for each state in the union.
However, as the flag got more complicated, someone realised that wasn't such a good idea after all.
Liberia

The flag clearly shows the country's American origins as a homeland for freed slaves.
The 11 stripes represent the men who signed Liberia's declaration of independence.
Rather oddly the blue in the canton is supposed to represent Africa.
The single star marked Liberia out as the first and only independent African nation at the time.
Indonesia

This is a very old flag which was revived more recently.
The colours were originally holy ones but now they symbolise courage (red) and justice and purity (white).
Monaco

Again the colours are old but the bicolour of Monaco differs from that of Indonesia in its squarer proportions.
Poland

Once more the colours are old national ones but were more recently adopted as an official flag.
Haiti

This is just one of many versions of two main rival flags of Haiti which have been alternating since the start of the 19th century.
Ukraine

This is another very old flag which has been in use intermittently and was readopted recently.
The popular explanation of the colours is the blue sky and golden wheat of the Steppes plains.
San Marino

San Marino was supposedly founded in the 4th century. It is the world's smallest republic.
The colours of this simple flag are said to represent snowy mountain peaks and sky.
So perhaps it is best viewed upside-down.
Austria

This flag design is very old.
In legend, the colours are the result of blood staining a white tunic everywhere except under the belt.
Latvia

This is another old flag with a blood-soaked legend (the sides of a sheet folded over a wounded leader).
It was suppressed during Russian and Soviet rule but readopted after the USSR broke up.
Belarus

This is an old regional flag which was readopted around the time the USSR broke up.
Argentina

The blue and white colours were the result of the Argentine Liberation Army needing to distinguish themselves from the Spanish troops.
At the time both groups were wearing red.
Nicaragua

This flag was based on the Argentine one (as were those of other Central American states which broke away from Spanish rule).
It differs from that of El Salvador only in the shade of blue used.
El Salvador

This flag was based on the Argentine one (as were those of other Central American states which broke away from Spanish rule).
It differs from that of Nicaragua only in the shade of blue used.
Spain

The current flag is relatively recent.
The colours are from the coats of arms of two provinces.
Netherlands

This Dutch flag was possibly the first revolutionary tricolour and may have been used as a model by the French.
The red band was originally orange. Bizarrely, the Netherlands is still a Kingdom though.
Germany

This German unification flag came and went a few times after its invention,
before its current acceptance as a symbol of the Federal Republic.
The colours are officially black, red and gold - so don't call it orange!
Luxembourg

This design was probably influenced by the other tricolours but took a while to be officially adopted as a symbol of the Grand Duchy.
The colours are old, the blue being paler than that of the Netherlands (and the flag proportions are different too).
Armenia

The red symbolises blood which was shed, the blue stands for the unchanged nature of the land and the orange represents the courage/work of the people.
The Armenian flag had different proportions before the break-up of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
Thailand

Thailand used to be Siam. The Trairong flag name means tricolour.
The blue stands for the monarchy, the white for the purity of Buddhism and the red for the life blood of the people.
Iraq

This is the flag before arabic text was added in 1991.
The current situation makes displaying that unwise.
It is also as far from the US one as possible in the hope that separating them will stop them fighting.

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