History of the French Flag

What is the national flag of France

The national flag of France is a tricolor featuring three vertical bands colored royal navy blue, white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the French tricolor or simply the tricolor .

What do the colors in the french flag mean?

Blue and red are the traditional colors of Paris, used on the city’s coat of arms. Blue is identified with Saint Martin, red with Saint Denis. At the storming of the Bastille in 1789, the Paris militia wore blue and red cockades on their hats. White had long featured prominently on French flags and is described as the “ancient French color” by Lafayette. White was added it to the “revolutionary” colors of the militia cockade to “nationalize” the design, thus creating the tricolor cockade. Although Lafayette identified the white stripe with the nation, other accounts identify it with the monarchy.

Various meanings have been ascribed to the colors. Lafayette’s tricolor cockade was adopted in July 1789, a moment of national unity that soon faded. Royalists began wearing white cockades and flying white flags, while the Jacobins, and later the Socialists, flew the red flag. The tricolor, which combines royalist white with republican red, came to be seen as a symbol of moderation and of a nationalism that transcended factionalism. French schools teach that each color represents an estate of the Ancien Regime: White for the clergy, red for the nobility and blue for the bourgeoisie. Blue, as the symbol of the bourgeoisie, comes first within the color enumeration and red, representing the nobility, comes last. Both extreme colors are situated on each side of white referring to a superior order.

Trivia Questions About Government and Nations

What is the history of the Tricolor Flag of France

From the accession of the Bourbons on the throne of France, the green ensign of the navy became a plain white flag, being the symbol of purity and of royal authority. The merchant navy was assigned “the old flag of the nation of France”, the white cross on a blue field.

The tricolor flag is derived from cockades used during the French Revolution. These were circular emblems attached to the hat. Camille Desmoulins asked his followers to wear green cockades on July 12, 1789. The Paris militia, formed on July 13, adopted a blue and red cockade. Blue and red are the traditional colors of Paris, used on the city’s coat of arms. Cockades with various color schemes were used during the storming of the Bastille on July 14. The blue and red cockade was presented to King Louis XVI at the Hôtel de Ville on July 17. Lafayette argued for the addition of a white stripe to “nationalize” the design. On July 27, a tricolor cockade was adopted as part of the uniform of the National Guard, which succeeded the militia.

A drapeau tricolor with vertical red, white and blue stripes was approved by the Constituent Assembly on October 24, 1790. Simplified designs were used to illustrate how the revolution broke with the past. The order was reversed to blue-white-red by a resolution passed February 15, 1794. Despite its official status, the tricolor e was rarely used during the French Revolution. Instead, the red flag of the Jacobin Club, symbolizing defiance and national emergency, was flown. The tricolor e was restored to prominence under Napoleon.

Following the overthrow of Napoleon III, voters elected a royalist majority to the National Assembly of the new Third Republic. This parliament then offered the throne to the Bourbon pretender, Henri, comte de Chambord who insisted that he would accept the throne on the condition that the tricolor be replaced by the white flag. As the tricolor had become a cherished national symbol, this proved impossible to accommodate. Plans to restore the monarchy were adjourned and ultimately dropped, and France has remained a republic, with the tricolor flag, ever since.

The constitutions of 1946 and 1958 instituted the “blue, white and red” flag as the national emblem of the Republic