European Countries' Colonial Flags 

Since this video was kind of longer, here are some time-stamps for each country if you want to skip any of them: United Kingdom (1:15), Portugal (5:35), Belgium (7:35), Netherlands (8:35), Germany (10:15), France (11:35), Spain (13:35), Italy (16:05)

The Union Jack is basically a fancy watermark for countries

The Spanish empire did not have colonial flags because the overseas possessions were not considered colonies but regions of Spain with the inhabitants having exactly the same rights as the people in the metropolis. That was quite unique for the time

The reason for Spain only using the national flag is becasue in the majority of the Spanish empire, the overseas territories werent colonies, they were part of the empire, wich meant they had the same laws as the main land.

Spain considered his "Colonies" as overseas territories, like a weird extension of Spain itself but across the Atlantic, thats why the cultural impact was so deep among other things, The way they were ruled and the laws were virtually the same in both sides of the Atlantic for everyone (but yeah important jobs were mostly for Peninsulares, but still plenty of Criollos had a lot of power too , same as the nobility and landlords of Spain itself)

Everyone: let's get creative Britain: put our flag at the corner and I don't care the rest

Rock: is unclaimed Britain: hippity hoppity, that rock is my property

I learn more here than school

Fun fact: Austria-Hungary, (edit) *also Germany, France, UK, USA, Japan, Russia, Belgium and Italy* had colonies (concessions) in the city of Tianjin

The Spanish Empire didn't had a flag for its overseas territories on America because it didn't considered them different to their European holdings and the notion of Nation-State was far from coming in the XV century, where it kick-started. All of Hispano-America and the Phillipines belonged to the Crown of Castille-Leon hence, when Charles III decided to use the current pattern of Gules and Gold (Red and Yellow), the dependencies followed suit. The blazons you have depicted were granted not to colonies, but to specific cities (Guatemala and Bogotá [then more formally called "Santa Fé"]. All of the now national capital cities of what became American republics have one.I think the one for P.R. was for the governor once the notion of Nation-State of the XIX was formed. Still, good video :)

0:02: Cambodia: yep im not here at all.

It's so good to have finally found a world class channel with content about Brazil and Portugal. Você é um orgulho para nós, irmão lusitano!

That's wrong, every good EU4 player knows a colonial flag is just the same flag as the overlord but the right side is a plain colour that depends on the location. Get your facts right.

Stickman French Sudan Flag was so dope.

Russia: They're not colonies if they're directly connected to the glorious motherland!

Fun fact: the Union Jack is still used on several Canadian province flags to this day; Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia

3:52 There is also a country that uses a Union Jack in the upper left corner with a yellow background. It's Niue.

You mistaked the italian royal coat of arms with the cross of Pisa, other than this great video!!

7:33 , I am from Brazil and this White colonial flag is correct and also called "the flag of the principality of Brazil" and in fact it influenced the flag of the empire of Brazil and the flag of the Kingdom of Brazil (Part of the United Kingdom of Portugal Brazil and algarves formed during the Napoleonic Wars) that practically the same flag that was used in Colonial Brazil but with the Blue Fund. I add that the imperial flag was a fusion of Portuguese symbols and brasses of noble families that formed the empire. I hope I helped, great video by the way.

14:56 For New Granada the two "red fruits" are pomegranates, the symbol of "old" Granada.

I love it when he pronounce words with a Portuguese accent like: _LAOSHHH_ .

The inventor of the flag of French Sudan must´ve been like: "Hon hon hon Jacques, c'est le meilleur drapeau."

Spain didn't have flags for their territories (not colonies) because the tradition was that the king would grant a coat of arms to the most important cities. In addition, the flags of the municipalities consisted of the cross of burgundy with the coat of arms of the capital of the viceroyalty or captaincy at the four ends of the cross. In this way, the flag of New Spain was the cross with the CoA of Mexico City, New Granada was a cross with the CoA of Bogotá (the same one shown in the video), Peru was the cross with the CoA of the Ciudad de los Reyes (City of the Kings, actually Lima), the same with the captaincy of Guatemala. The viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata was an exception, since Buenos Aires never had a coat of arms given by the king.

So Australia summed up. Blue was used for government buildings, red for civil/public use. A few changes occurred until the passing of the 1953 Flags Act which stipulated the Blue flag would become the national flag and red would be for civilian maritime watercraft. The White ensign is only used on Her Majesty's Australian Ships (HMAS) of the Royal Australian Navy. It is an offence to fly this flag as a civilian. Hope this clarifies things for you. Great video!

The Kingdom of Hawaii, though never ruled by the British, liked the UK so much that they put the Union Jack in the corner. And it’s in the state flag of Hawaii even today!

I love how you mangled the pronunciation of VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) . You also read the name of Laos 🇱🇦 the Portugese way. Good work! Your videos are educational and fun to watch. 👍🏻 Keep up the good work.

Me at this Channel: *science Patrick* Me at school: *dum Patrick*

I like how you didn’t just cover 1 colonial power like others would.

Good work! I have to mention, by the way, that Italy also had some sort of colony in Albania (actually a separate kingdom in a personal union) and Albania had its own flag in Italian (fascist) style

I'm still searching for the flag with 50 stars to identify the overlord of the US

"Italy never had a tramendously large colonial empire" Every roman must being spinning in their grave. 😂😂

In Spanish coats of arms, a bucket with snakes represents economic wealth. The bucket, which actually is a pot, represents the ability of the fief lord to feed and maintain his own army. Snakes are there just for aesthetic purposes. Good video, greetings from Spain!

Portugal, Spain, And Britain had the most outreaching results

There is a mistake. Spanish Viceroyalty's had their own flag. It was the Burgundian Cross on a white field, at the top of the four corners were the Coat of Arms of each region: New Spain's for example had the ancient Mexico City's emblem, the same case on New Granada Viceroyalty, Rio de la Plata, Capitania de Guatemala, etc.

nice vid, keep up the good work my friend

You put so much detail on these videos! Subscribed!

I´m argentinian and i love when you speak in spanish.

I love all your videos: Add some inof about New Holand flah (Dutch period in Brazil): Dutch Brazil, beside, representation of this flag, as taken from the book Flags and Brasões do Brasil, by Clóvis Ribeiro, there is a discussion about the letters of the anagram referring to the CIMD as being Companhia das Indias Merdionais, in portugues as it was mistakenly mentioned, since this is not the correct name of the Company, and the understanding that the initials IMNCVD refers to “Iohan Maurits van Nassau Catzelnbogen Vianden en Dietz” is more correct according to information from the Dutch publication “ Vexilla Nostra ”of March 1973.

@General Knowledge 9:51 - The Monogram (C I M D) stands for "Comes Iohannes Mauritius Dominus", the Latin for Governor Count John Maurice (Dutch: Johan Mautris) of Nassau-Siegren who was the Governor of Dutch Brazil from 23 January 1637 - 30 September 1643.

Excellent & Informative instructivel video. Highly recommended!

The Green Irish ensign is interesting. It's included in various 18th & 19th century flag books but nobody ever seems to have found a surviving one or seen it actually being used.

The British ceylon flag was really cool with a elephant and a stupa ( buddist structure).and the Portuguese ceylon flag with coconut trees and elephant as ceylon used to be a Portuguese colony before

I enjoyed this video a lot. Very well done!

Excellent work👍👍👍

0:01 "Every country have their own flag" *Northern Ireland:* Hold my beer

Great Video as Always ... Can You Make a Video About Not Really Known Regions That Wants to Be a Independent Countries ?

Really love your videos man, very informative. May I just suggest you add a little bit of background music? Nothing crazy, just something light and low to keep up engagement and attention. Like adding a bit of tomato sauce to spaghetti, you know? Keep up the good work, this channel has awesome content.

Great video! thanks!

12:58 The people from upper Volta is so funny as i see by putting that flag in their territory that is technically French.

Nobody: Western Europe: "But do you have a flag?"

Great video! Keep up the good work!

Thank you for this video

1:54 The British Honduras flag had two Union Jacks in one. Bruh. Swedenball is crying, I feel bad for their short lived New Sweden colony which was conquered by *G E K O L O N I S E E R D*

The red fruits on the blason for Nueva Granada are pomegranates in Spanish called granadas. They are not however native to Nueva Granada or even Granada they are from Ethiopia and Yemen.

Staggering amount of research put into these videos - shows a huge amount of dedication. These videos never fail to impress. A couple of little things - The bird at (11:05) is a bird of paradise, while the tiger at (08:15) is more likely to be a lion.

Wouw, I didn't know about Dutch Brazil. Very interesting video!

The Netherlands Antilles don’t exist anymore, they are now countries in the Kingdom of the Netherlands or special municipalities of the Netherlands

I really needed to laugh at you pronunciation of: de verenigde Oost-Indische compagnie. You did your best tough I understand that it's hard for non Dutch speakers to pronounce these words properly.

Can’t wait for a part 2

I admire your attempt on pronouncing the dutch words xd, handelsposten came close though, good job

The white flag with the armillary sphere was the Prince of Brazil flag. The Prince of Brazil was the heir of the Portuguese crown, like the Prince of Wales in the UK

By the way, the two flags shown at 1:34 were, on the left, the flag of the Union of South Africa (from 1912-28), and, on the right, the flag of British Honduras (from 1870-1919) (it was never officially called Belize under that flag). The flag of "some Middle Eastern Regions" at 12:33 is the flag of (the one, single, region of) the French Mandate of Syria. The Spanish flag isn't a bicolor, lol. That would be two stripes of two different colors. Small difference, but I would think the mind behind Fun With Flags would know that. The symbol representing Cyrenaica on the Coat of Arms of Italian Libya is indeed a plant, specifically a silphium cut. And fun fact, "Rapa" on the flag of French Polynesia refers to the island of Rapa (Iti), which is sometimes used colloquially as the name of the whole collectivity.

The thing with Spain is that their territories were not considered by them as "colonies" but were legally recognized and integrated in the same way an mainland province considered part of Spain, it just had different goverments to make it easier to reign, like with the main viceroyalties, followed by capitancies, audiences, provinces. That didn't stopped a law that only let peninsular Spaniards be in charge of everything though, you were not able to have high ranking political jobs if you were born overseas, even if both of your parents were of Spanish or (in some cases) european descent.

03:54 there was also a yellow background used for territories like Niue 🇳🇺

14:43 is that knight on horseback depicted driving away a Moorish army? (Santiago Matamoros?)

The union jack is ONLY called a union jack when is is flying on HM ships.

Superbe vidéo !!

I love your videos

British with "union jack"🇦🇨🇦🇮🇦🇺🇫🇯🇨🇰🇩🇬🇫🇰🇬🇸🇭🇲🇰🇾🇲🇾🇳🇿🇹🇨🇹🇦🇹🇫🇺🇸🇻🇬 French with """union jaques""" 🇹🇫 🇼🇫

Puerto Rico and Cuba actually did have their own official colonial flags that were unique to them but I think they were the only ones and it was really late

Nice presentation. Great work and you need also some updates , Ethiopia did not colonised rather attempt but not succeed. I think that why you did not find any flag representative on it. Keep it up bro.

This is a great overview but I'd love to have also learned about Sweden's.

9:25 Dutch speakers be cringin'

És português, caramba! Esses plurais não mentem... Parabéns vídeo e pelo canal.

I heard the US Field Artillery again! Good one, General Knowledge

The dutch are building Kaapstad( kaap de goude hoop) in south Afrika And new york( nieuw amsterdam) in america

7:58 I also didn't know that =D

The Philippines was colonized by Spain and Spain gave these islands to the United States, I'm not joking

15:34 also the castle thing of the top center is now in the botton in the shield

The Italians flags are obviously the most beautifuls

What about Niue then? They have a yellow field with the union jack up left

Fun fact: 14:52 New Grenada's Viceroyalty coat of arms is the current coat of arms of my hometown (Bogotá, Colombia's capital and also capital of the former viceroyalty)

your dutch is the most funny atement to speak dutch i have ever seen

0:10 I'm just being picky but why is Crete apart of Turkey? I feel like that'll annoy a lot of people

Takes balls to make a video about colonial empires at this day and age. Never stop teaching history. Lets never forget lest we repeat it. Great work as always. Keep going!

yesss, i love to see these flags

Have you done a video on Gibraltar? If not, I'd like to suggest u do one. It's a very interesting topic.

0:55 Therapist: Countryballs with eyebrows isn’t real, he can’t hurt you Countryballs with eyebrows:

14:52 se parece al escudo de Bogotá.

Fantastic video as always! Just a note, the term 'Union Jack' refers to the flag that is flown from the mast of a ship. Our flag is called the 'Union flag'.

I really like your Channel :)

The Spanish Empire (at least in the Americas) was divided into Viceroyalties, and some had Captaincies General that were subordinate to them (e.g. Viceroyalty of Peru with the Captaincy General of Chile). Pretty much every subdivision (Viceroyalty, Captaincy General, even most cities) had their own coat of arms, it’s definitely not restricted to the ones shown.

I didn’t know the Falklands once had a flag that didn’t have sheep on it

Referring to Portugal/brasil, If I recall correctly the white flag with the armilar sphere shown at 7:27 was the flag reserved for the ships of the Southern Route, traveling from and to Brasil. After the court relocated to Brasil to escape Napoleon, and the colony was upgraded to a kingdom, the government look around to see what they could put in the flag of the now United Kingdom of Portugal and Brasil to represent the new member, and that was the only thing they found, so the sphere was added to the flag, in use between 1816-1822, under the Portuguese coat of arms, over a white field. When Brasil seceded from the union, they kept the sphere in their imperial flag, as shown in the video, and kept it until the republic took it out in 1889. Ironicaly, Portugal put it back on their flag, when they became a republic, in 1910.

a point for the dutch flags: pre-napoleon Dutch flags had a lighter tint of blue. The red used to be orange as well at a certain point in time.

Melilla is pronounce "Me-li-Ya" as in Young for example.

Are you Angolan, Portuguese or Brazilian?

4:32 the wight ensign is still used today for the Australian navy, each of our armed forces has a unique flag: the adf (Australian defence force), the Australian Air Force and the navy

The monogram on the Dutch Brazil flag is the monogram of Maurice of Nassau, then governor.

UK how many flags do you have? UK: Yes