- Source: Flag of Colombia
The national flag of Colombia symbolizes that the nation gained its independence from Spain on 20 July 1810. It is a horizontal tricolor of yellow, blue and red in a 2:1:1 ratio. The yellow stripe takes up a half of the flag while the blue and red stripes take up a quarter of the space each.
Symbolism and design
The horizontal stripes (from top to bottom) of yellow, blue and red tricolor have a ratio of 2:1:1. The Colombian flag, the flag of Ecuador, and the flag of Venezuela are all derived from the flag of Gran Colombia. The stripes of the Colombian and Ecuadorian flags are different from most other tricolor flags because the three stripes are not equal sizes. By contrast, the flag of Venezuela is a more conventional tricolor due to its evenly sized stripes.
The official colors of the Colombian flag have not been established by law. The International Federation of Vexillological Associations recommends the following colors:
According to the government of Colombia, the colors represent:
The flag's colors have other representations, such as blue for loyalty and vigilance, red for the victory of battles for Colombian independence, and yellow for sovereignty and justice.
History
Francisco de Miranda originally created the common yellow, blue, and red flag of Gran Colombia that Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, with slight variations, share today. Miranda gave at least two sources of inspiration for his flag. In a letter written to the Russian count Semyon Vorontsov and the German philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Miranda described a late-night conversation he had had with Goethe at a party in Weimar during the winter of 1785. Fascinated by Miranda's account of his exploits in the United States Revolutionary War and his travels throughout the Americas and Europe, Goethe told him, "Your destiny is to create in your land a place where primary colors are not distorted." He proceeded to clarify what he meant:
First he explained to me the way the iris transforms light into the three primary colours […] then he proved to me why yellow is the most warm, noble and closest to [white] light; why blue is that mix of excitement and serenity, a distance that evokes shadows; and why red is the exaltation of yellow and blue, the synthesis, the vanishing of light into shadow.
It is not that the world is made of yellows, blues and reds; it is that in this manner, as if in an infinite combination of these three colours, we human beings see it. […] A country [Goethe concluded] starts out from a name and a flag, and it then becomes them, just as a man fulfils his destiny.
After Miranda designed his flag based on this conversation, he recalled seeing a fresco by Lazzaro Tavarone in the Palazzo Belimbau in Genoa that depicted Christopher Columbus unfurling a similar-colored flag in Veragua during his fourth voyage.
In his military diary, Miranda gave another possible source of inspiration: the yellow, blue and red standard of the Burger Guard (Bürgerwache) of Hamburg, which he also saw during his travels in Germany.
In the 1801 plan for an army to liberate Spanish America, which he submitted unsuccessfully to the British cabinet, Miranda requested the materials for "ten flags, whose colors shall be red, yellow, and blue, in three zones." However, the first flag was not raised until 12 March 1806, in Jacmel, Haiti, during his ill-fated expedition to Venezuela.
Gallery of flags
National flag
Historical flags
Military and civil flags
Historical military and civil flags
Construction sheets
Gallery of images
See also
List of Colombian flags
Coat of arms of Colombia
¡Oh, Gloria inmarcesible!
Flag of Ecuador (similar design; defaced with the coat of arms in the center)
Flag of Russia (similar design; white stripe instead of yellow)
Flag of Lithuania (similar design; green stripe instead of blue)
References
External links
Colombia at Flags of the World
Colombian flag history (Spanish)
Colombian flag history (English)
Joaquín Piñeros Corpas, Historia de la bandera colombiana (1967) 183pp.
Kata Kunci Pencarian:
- Kolombia Raya
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- Bendera
- FARC
- Konferensi Internasional Partai dan Organisasi Marxis-Leninis (Buletin Internasional)
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- Kematian dan pemakaman Pangeran Philip, Adipati Edinburgh
- Kolombia pada Olimpiade Musim Panas 2024
- The Misfits (grup musik)
- Miss Supranational 2021
- Flag of Colombia
- List of Colombian flags
- Flag of Gran Colombia
- Flag of Ecuador
- Flag of the president of Colombia
- Flags of South America
- List of national flags of sovereign states
- Flag families
- National symbols of Colombia
- Flag of Venezuela