Flag of Italy.html



Flag of Italy

Use	National flag and state ensign.
Proportion	2:3
Adopted	January 1, 1948
Design	A vertical tricolour of green, white and red.
Use	Civil ensign.
Proportion	2:3
Design	A vertical tricolour of green, white and red, with the seal of the navy on center, but without the crown on the top and with the lion holding a book instead of a sword.
Use	Naval ensign.
Proportion	2:3
Design	A vertical tricolour of green, white and red, with the seal of the navy on center.

See also: List of Italian flags

The flag of Italy (La bandiera d'Italia, often referred to in Italian as Il Tricolore) is a tricolour featuring three equally sized vertical bands of green, white and red, with the green at the hoist side. In its current form it was adopted on 1 January 1948.

The first entity to use the Italian tricolour was the Repubblica Cispadana (Cispadane Republic) in 1797, after Napoleon's army crossed Italy. During this time many small republics based on the Jacobian model were formed and almost all used the French tricolour with different colours. The colours chosen by the Republic were red and white, the colours of the Flag of Milan, and green which was the colour of the uniform of the Lombard Legion.^[1]

Some have tried to attribute some particular values to the colours and a common interpretation is that the green represents the country's plains and the hills; white, the snowy Alps; and red, the blood spilt in the Italian Wars of Independence. A more religious interpretation is that the green represents hope, the white represents faith and the red represents charity. This interpretation references the three theological virtues.

History

Pre-unification flags (until 1848)

When, in 1794 the French Army led by Napoleon Bonaparte entered Italy, both the new Repubblica Transpadana (Transpadane Republic) and the military group attached to French army adopted flags similar to the Italian tricolour. The French viewed this flag as inspirational and welcoming (Yates). Probably, the colours have been chosen according to Legione Lombarda flag: it summed Milan city colours (red and white) to the green of Milan Civic Guard uniforms. The same colours were adopted by the Legione Italiana, formed by soldiers coming from Emilia and Romagna.

The first official Italian tricolour was adopted on 7 January 1797, in Reggio Emilia, as flag of the Repubblica Cispadana. It was a horizontal tricolour, with red (top), white and green stripes; in the middle, an emblem composed by a quiver, accolade to a war trophy, with four arrows that symbolized the four provinces forming the Po federation; all within a crown of bay.

The Italian tricolor, flying at Piazza Venezia, Rome

The eighteenth-century Sala del Tricolore, now site of Reggio Emilia Town Hall. The first tricolour of the Cispadane Republic was adopted here in 1797.

1796 - flag of the Transpadane Republic	1797 - flag of the Cispadane Republic	1798 - flag of the Cisalpine Republic	1802 - flag of the Napoleonic Italian Republic
1805 - flag of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy

The Repubblica Cispadana and the Repubblica Transpadana merged into the Repubblica Cisalpina (Cisalpine Republic), which adopted the vertical Italian tricolour without emblem in 1798. The flag was maintained until 1802, when the Republic was renamed Repubblica Italiana (Italian Republic), and a new square flag was adopted, with a red field carrying a white rhombus and a green square in the middle of the white rhombus.

In 1799 the Republic of Lucca came under French influence and adopted as its flag a green-white-red horizontal tricolour until 1801.

In 1805, after Napoleon had crowned himself first French Emperor, the Repubblica Italiana was transformed into the Regno d'Italia (Kingdom of Italy), ruled by Napoleon himself; the flag of the Regno d'Italia was the flag of the Repubblica Italiana in rectangular shape, with Napoleon's eagle placed on the central white square. This flag was in use until the abdication of Napoleon in 1814.

The Risorgimento 1815-1871

Between the 1848 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the independence and unification of Italy (except Venetia, Rome, Trento and Trieste, which were united with Italy in 1866, 1870 and 1918 respectively); this period is known as the risorgimento, or resurgence. Throughout this period, the tricolore was the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence.

1848 - civil flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia (and from 1861 of the Kingdom of Italy), with Savoyan coat of arms.	1848 - state flag of the Kingdom of Sardinia (and later Italy).	1848 - flag of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during the First Italian War of Independence, with the Habsburg-Lorraine coat of arms. Note, however, that the arms bear the red-white-red flag of Austria, the opponent of Italian unification.	1848-49 - flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The traditional flag of the Kingdom, white with Bourbon (Two Sicilies) coat of arms, with a red and green border added.
1848-49 - flag of the Temporary Government of Venice. The white canton bearing the lion of St. Mark, from the flag of the Most Serene Republic.	1849 - war flag of the Roman Republic. The civil and state flag had no lettering.	1860-61 - flag of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

The Italian Independence wars 1848-1866

Civil flag of the Kingdom of Italy. The shield was crowned on the state flag.

In 1848 many states in Italy changed their flags to reflect the commitment of all Italians to the independence of their motherland.

The Italian tricolour was first adopted as war flag of the Regno di Sardegna (Kingdom of Sardinia-Piedmont) army: it contained House of Savoy's coat of arms in the white stripe. In his Proclamation to the people of the Regno Lombardo-Veneto (Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia), Charles Albert of Savoy said "… in order to show more clearly with exterior signs the commitment to Italian unification, We want that our troops … have the Savoy shield superimposed on the Italian tricolour flag." Since the Savoy coat of arms had a white cross that mixed with the white stripe of the Italian tricolour, a border was added to the shield, blue being the colour of the dynasty.

In the same year, the Granducato di Toscana (Grand Duchy of Tuscany) became constitutional, and dropped the Austrian flag with Austria-Lorraine great coat of arms, in favour of the Italian tricolour with a simplified coat of arms.

The flag of the Regno delle Due Sicilie (Kingdom of the Two Sicilies), which was white with the Borbonic seal in the middle, was modified through the addition of a red and green border. This flag lasted from 3 April 1848 to 19 May 1849.

In the same year, Venetian people revolted against Austrian government, declaring the birth of the Repubblica di Venezia (Venician Republic). The flag adopted marked the link to Italian independence and unification efforts; it was the Italian tricolour with, in the upper green canton, a white rectangle bordered with green-white-red colours charged with St. Mark's lion.

In 1849 the Repubblica Romana (Roman Republic) adopted the Italian tricolour with (on the war flag) a double black letter "R" on the white stripe.

Kingdom of Italy 1861-1946

War flag of the fascist Italian Social Republic. The device did not appear on the civil and state flag.

In 1860 a new version of the flag of the Regno delle Due Sicilie was adopted: the Italian tricolour with Borbonic seal on the white stripe. Adopted on 21 June 1860, this lasted until March 1861 when the Kingdom was incorporated into the Regno d'Italia (Kingdom of Italy).

On 15 April 1861, the Regno di Sardegna flag was declared the flag of the newly-formed Regno d'Italia. This Italian tricolour, defaced with the armorial bearings of the former Royal House of Savoy was the national flag for 85 years until the birth of the Italian Republic.

Italian Social Republic 1943-1945

The civil and state flag of the short-lived Nazi puppet state in northern Italy, the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (Italian Social Republic), or Republic of Salò as it was commonly known, was identical to the flag of the modern Repubblica Italiana (Italian Republic). This was actually quite uncommon, while the war flag, charged with a dark-grey eagle clutching fasces, was very common in propaganda.

The Italian Republic (from 1948)

Standard of the President of the Italian Republic, modified in 2000.

The Italian tricolour was adopted in its current form on 1 January 1948 with the introduction of the republican constitution and the end of the rule of the House of Savoy over Italy. Article 12 of the Italian Constitution states "The flag of the Republic is the Italian tricolour: green, white and red, in three vertical bands having equal dimensions." The universally adopted ratio is 2:3, while the war flag is squared.

The Italian Naval ensign is composed of the national flag with a rostred crown and the arms of the Marina Militare on the white third; the Merchant Navy (Marina Mercantile) and civil ensign is similar, but without the crown and with the lion holding a book instead of a sword. The shield is divided into four squares representing the four great maritime republics of Italy: Venice (represented by the lion, top left), Genoa (top right), Amalfi (bottom left), and Pisa (represented by their respective crosses).

The President of the Italian Republic has an official standard. The current version is based on the squared flag of the Napoleonic Italian Republic, with a blue border, defaced with the golden coat of arms of Italy. The national flag defaced by the coat of arms is not used due to its resemblance to the flag of the United States of Mexico.

In 1997, on the bicentenary of the tricolore, 7 January was declared "National Flag Day" (Law no. 671, 31 December 1996). It is a celebratory day, though not a public holiday.

Colour specification

The shades chosen in 2003.^[2]

In March 2003, after 207 years in service, the colours of the Italian flag were officially specified, but later changed, after hot debate on the chosen shades. As of 2006 the official Pantone textile colours are ^[3]:

17-6153 TC    (fern green)

11-0601 TC    (bright white)

18-1662 TC    (flame scarlet)

Similarities to other flags

Italian and Mexican flags.

Given the superficial similarities between the two flags, it may be surmised that the Italian flag formed the basis for the flag of Mexico and that the Mexican coat of arms positioned over the white portion is the only difference between the two. However, the Italian flag actually uses lighter shades of green and red. More important is that the two have different aspect ratios: The Italian flag's aspect ratio is 2:3, while the Mexican flag's aspect ration of 4:7 results in a more elongated rectangular shape.

Given its possible derivation from the flag of France, the Italian tricolore is similar to many flags of putatively similar origins. The Italian flag is also similar to the Flag of Ireland, which is green, white and orange (a tone very similar to the red used in the flag of Italy) but with different proportions (1:2 against 2:3), as well as to the Côte d'Ivoire flag, which is, rather, orange, white and green. Confusion also exists between the Italian flag and the current Flag of Hungary, the latter which has the same colours except that they are positioned horizontally with red on top, white in the middle and green on the bottom.

See also

• List of Italian flags
• Flags of regions of Italy
• Flags of Napoleonic Italy

References

External links

• (Italian)Il Tricolore at the Italian Republic Presidency website
• (Italian)Centro Italiano Studi Vessillologici
• (Italian)Commemorative stamp for the 200th anniversary of the Italian tricolour