The national flagof Colombia symbolizes that the nation gained its independence from Spain on 20 July 1810.[1] 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.
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.
Blue: Represents the sky above, the seas on Colombia's shores, and the rivers that run through.
Red: Represents the blood spilled for Colombia's independence and also the effort of Colombian people, their determination and perseverance. It represents that although Colombia's people once struggled, they have since thrived.
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.
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.[4][5]
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."[6] 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
National flag and state ensign of Colombia
Historical flags
Flag of United Provinces of New Granada (1811–1814), later adopted and used by Jean Lafitte from 1817 to 1821 at Galveston Island, Spanish Texas, New Spain
Flag of United Provinces of New Granada (1814–1816)
^Serpa Erazo, Jorge, [summary of Ricardo Silva Romero's] "La Bandera del Mundo."Archived 2007-08-12 at the Wayback MachinePañol de la Historia. Part 1, Section 1 (July 30, 2004). ISSN 1900-3447. Retrieved on 2008-12-02
^Dousdebés, Pedro Julio, "Las insignias de Colombia," Boletín de historia y antigüedades, August 1937, 462, cited in Nelson González Ortega, "Formación de la iconografía nacional en Colombia: una lectura semiótico-social," Revista de Estudios Colombianos, No. 16 (1996), 20.
^Miranda, Francisco; Josefina Rodríguez de Alonso; José Luis Salcedo-Bastardo (1983), Colombeia: Segunda sección: El viajero ilustrado, 1787-1788, vol. 4, Caracas: Ediciones de la Presidencia de la República, p. 415, ISBN84-499-6610-8, April 19:[…] around 5:30 in the evening I had the pleasure of seeing the Burger Guard pass by with flag waving and drums beating, which it does every day at a similar time […] The [officers of the] infantry wore red with a yellow emblem, and the artillery blue with red emblem.
^Miranda, Francisco; Josefina Rodríguez de Alonso; José Luis Salcedo-Bastardo (1978), Colombeia: Primera parte: Miranda, súbdito español, 1750-1780, vol. 1, Caracas: Ediciones de la Presidencia de la República, p. 80, ISBN978-84-499-5163-3
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