I’ve always loved vexillology (the study of flags) and have a large collection of all 50 state flags and the flags of all the countries I have visited. Many people don’t know that every June 14 the United States honors the day the Continental Congress adopted the 13 Stripes and Stars of the original 13 freed American Colonies, a holiday simply named, Flag Day. But if you didn’t know, there are far more flags than just our red, white, and blue, and so today, I have collected some of my personal favorite flags of the world and some accompanying books from our massive supply of literature all to do with nations around the world.
Perhaps the best place to start is the very beginning. The first-time fabric was used as symbol was in Ancient Egypt with the Vexillum (vexillology derived from these first “flags”), this is a square of fabric that was carried into battles to represent opposing sides of an army. Separately, in Ancient China and India silk was discovered and also carried into battles, typically a singular-colored banner that signified victory or loss.
The modern flags that we know today derived from Islamic origins with Saracens, a rectangular fabric that commonly adopted four colors: black, white, red, and green, still very common today in Muslim majority countries and formed the first flag family. A fascinating book I found called “Middle East Patterns” by Colbert Held goes into detail exploring the places, people, and politics of the region and the origins of their symbolism today. In the Middle Ages, Romans brought home some of these symbols from their conquests in North Africa and Arabia and began using them for the first time as a representation of an individual Nationality.
The oldest standing flag is Denmark’s 800-year-old, simple red background and white Nordic cross. This formed another flag family with other Northern European Nations, such as England, whose flag started as almost an inversion of the Danish one before the Union Jack was adopted to signify the union between the Kingdoms of the British Isles. I highly recommend Fletcher Pratt’s “The Third King,” as Pratt’s historical writing brings the medieval world of Denmark to life through its political and realistic environment. More broadly, “Social Scandanavia in the Viking Age” by Mary Williams is another deep dive into the history of Vikings as it explores societal roles and traditions in Northern Europe throughout the centuries.
The red, white, and blue color scheme became significant throughout Europe in the 1700s as many reformations and revolutions encouraged nations to adopt Democratic governments and spread throughout the world via European Colonialism. Much like the United States, other former British and French colonies have ties to these colors, such as Australia, New Zealand, and many small island nations throughout the Atlantic and Pacific. “Touched With Fire: The Land War in the South Pacific” by Eric Bergerud is an amazing book that explores the impact of Colonialism and the World Wars on Pacific Island Nations.
Yet not all nations adopted these colors, for instance, one of my favorite flags comes from formerly owned British South Africa whose flag is among one of the most unique in Africa and the world as a whole. One of our professors at Susquehanna University was born in the Apartheid state of South Africa and wrote a book about his experiences growing up in the discriminatory environment, I highly recommend Glen Retief’s “The Jack Bank” to all those interested in learning about South African history.
Not all African Nation’s flags are as colorful as that of South Africa’s, and instead follow the historical colors of Ethiopia, the only African colony to not be invaded or taken over by European Colonialism (for a while at least), many African Nations adopted the yellow, green, and red theme to signify their resilience as they became freed from empires. “The Southern Marches of Imperial Ethiopia” by Donald Donham is gathering of historical essays and an interpretation of the climate of Ethiopia across the past three centuries. Another fascinating story of African resilience is “Mali: A Search for Direction” by Pascal Imperato, but these are just two of hundreds of copies all about the nations of Africa, from their historical beginnings to the modern day and even looks into the future, we have it all.
Going back to Asia we find a series of diverse flags, to be well expected by the sheer size of the continent. Probably the most unique flag in the world is hidden away deep in the tallest mountains of the world, Nepal has a geometrically confusing, yet still, beautiful flag that juts out in two triangular shapes. In the 1990s Barbra Scot explored this fascinating country and wrote on her experiences and the stories of other women throughout her time there in her memoir “The Violet Shyness of Their Eyes: Notes from Nepal.”
Possibly one of the most opposing countries to Nepal is the Philippines, where instead of being an archipelago of mountaintop villages, the Philippines is made up of over 7,600 small islands. The Philippines has one of the most beautiful flags and during times of war, they flip it upside-down. Being a colony throughout most of its history, the Philippines has almost always been involved in some sort of war and Filipino people still struggle with their identities to this day, which is the main topic discussed by Daniel Schirmer and Stephen Shalom in the book “The Philippines Reader.“
Across the pond is a continent we’ve yet to discuss, South America. Latin and Hispanic history is too rich with its own flag families from Spanish and Portuguese Colonialism from the yellow, red, and blues of Grand Colombia and blues and whites of Central America, but one of my favorites comes from the South-est of
South, Argentina. The colors of Argentina’s flag are similar to that of Central America’s, in fact much of Latin America is grouped together by the blue and white color theme, yet Argentina’s golden sun in the middle stands out amongst the rest in beautiful fashion. Osvaldo Soriano writes of a fictional town in Argentina under strict military rule where the two main characters are set to fight one another in the must read “Winter Quarters: A Novel of Argentina.”
If you couldn’t tell, I could go on for days about countries and their flags, but there are close to 200 countries in the world and dozens of books about each, making it impossible to talk about all of them. You can read all about any of these countries and so many more in our main collection, many of our books about nations and history can be found in the “D” section of the Library of Congress system we use but it is equally as easy to type in the name of any country or topic on our website and find what you are looking for.
In all, flags unite all of us, they represent our identities and so much more, so be sure to read all about them this Flag Day, or really any day! Happy Flag Day and happy reading!
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