Why Do Countries Have Flags?

February 24, 2021

Have you ever looked up at a beautiful flag, flowing and whipping triumphantly in the wind and wondered, “Why do countries have flags in the first place?”

Thousands of years before modern flags started flying all across the world, Ancient armies like the egyptians and persians carried special symbols into battle called “Vexilloids”.

These early ancestors of modern flags were fairly different from the ones we see today. They weren’t made of fabric. These “Vexilloids” were usually a large staff with a giant carved emblem at the top.

The Romans took this tradition and as they often did, managed to make it their own. Roman soldiers carried large lance’s with shiny metal eagles mounted at the top.

The change from 3D objects to flat fabric flags didn’t take hold until the introduction of Chinese Silk.

Silk was a highly desirable fabric and trading of silk happened along a route known as the silk road.

The Chinese silk road traveled west from China through the Middle East where cloth flags first came into fashion. These flags helped identify someone’s rank depending on the fabric and complexity of the flag.

Lower level Officers usually settled for basic cotton flags while high-ranking officials would have woven silk flags embroidered with shining silver or gold thread.

Eventually, cloth flags continued their way across the Silk road to Europe where knights and heavy armor started using flags as a way to identify themselves on the battlefield.

Those flags identified the Knights rank, social class, land, or noble titles.

That’s where flags came from but when did they change from a personal ID to a symbol for each country?

It started in the American and French Revolutions. The simple red, white and blue design of the revolutionary American and French Flags were very distinct from all the fancy flags of the day.

Since the revolutionaries were rejecting the rule of a king or queen, They designed their flags to feel modern and most importantly, different from the flags Kings and Queens flew. For the first time, these flags were meant to represent an entire nation of citizens rather than just a noble house or family.