The OLDEST Flags In The World (That Are Still Used Today) 

*Which other flag related topics should I do videos on?*

General Knowledge, You should make a series of historical flags by country in every continent (Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania) and in every time period (Antiquity, Middle Ages, Modern Ages and Contemporary Ages) 🏴🏛🏰🏠

I imagine the Welsh aren't too devastated being left out of the Union Jack design, because the flag of Wales beats all the British ones by quite a margin - it has a freakin' red dragon in the centre! No one but Bhutan can compete with Wales in regards to flag design, but then again - maybe I read too many fantasy novels. Greetings from Denmark, by the way. Nice one ...

You've probably heard of it before, but a well known legend about Austria's flag is that it was made after Leopold V was covered in blood during a battle in the crusades, when he took of his belt to reveal a white stripe in the everywhere else blood covered tunic he was wearing.

Fun fact: The Scottish flag has been used since 832 AD (Idk if they used it contiguously though)

As a Latvian, I like this video and I'm quite impressed that you have really done a thorough research! Thanks! ☺

7:17 Gustav Vasa (Gustav I) died in 1560. By 1562 it was King Erik XIV. Also the first documented image of the gold and blue flag was in a 1560, during Gustav Vasa's funeral procesion.

When I learned about the legend of Dannebrog falling from the sky, back in school, my teacher suggested it might have been a cape or something that fell on the battlefield. She posited it might have fallen from a tower or something. Perhaps carried by the wind. Or I guess it could have been ripped from someone's armour during the battle. Either way, I like to believe that some amazing coincidence happen to let us Danes have the best flag.

Congrats on your 300 video. Great job!

🇬🇪❤️Love from Georgia

Nice video! 👍🏻 I really love flags! ❤️😁 Regarding the flag of Spain (11:40; aka: “La Rojigualda” 🇪🇸) the color scheme always remained intact since 1785, with the exception of the Second Republic period (1931-1939), when the color scheme was: red, yellow and purple: 🟥🟨🟪 Currently, article 4.1 of the 1978 Constitution establishes that: “The flag of Spain consists of three horizontal stripes: red, yellow and red, the yellow stripe being double the width of each red stripe”. The current Spanish coat of arms, featured in the national flag of Spain, was approved by law in 1981, in replacement of the interim coat of arms that replaced the official arms of Spain under General Franco.

Love the content keep it going

The flag of Catalonia (red and yellow stripes) originated as the arms of the tomb of Ramon Berenguer II, Count of Barcelona, who died in 1082. They have been used since then and still today without changes in Catalonia and with slight changes in the regions inherited by the Catalan Counts as “kingdoms”: Aragon, Valencia, Mallorca, Naples, etc. and in related Occitan counties and kingdoms.

A video of the newest flags would be nice! Keep the good content coming! Cheers!

Your video seemed to leveled up! I don't know how but it feels classier than your older vids.

Damn, didn't realize you have 800k subs now. I remember watching your video about the Philippine flag a few years ago. Keep up the good work!😁

Poland ommited... Our flag was officialy adopted by Duchy of Warsaw with it's creation. Colours are obviously much older, but in medieval era it was red flag with the white eagle. Later, during the union, it were 3 stripes red, white and red. You can argue that White and Red flag came from the small "banners" in these colours that were attached to the lances of Polish cavalry

The flag of the Peoples republic of china is the most underwhelming to me. Thousands of years of history and nothing on the flag represents any of it’s culture, heritage or traditions in any way

That second Spanish Cross Flag is a thing of beauty.

It's always nice to see your own flag. 🇳🇱 Greetings from a Dutch in Belgium 🇧🇪.

Informative.

1:37 As someone interested in naval warfare during WW2 it's surprising how many names are familiar for me. Especially when you also include not completed ships because of the Washington Naval Treaty

Im so proud to have Latvian heritage from Cēsis My people created one of the longest used flags in the whole world 😎🤠

Fun fact: Japan has the world's oldest continuous hereditary dynasty, starting in 660 B.C.

We finally see Sheldon's vision of a "Fun with Flags" channel. Yes, we want more flag stuff!!

The Argentinean football team Boca Juniors got its colours from the Sweden flag. The boys from La Boca port neighbourhood decided to use the colours from the first ship they saw and it was a Swedish ship 🇸🇪 The Pizza Margarita has the colours of Italian flag 🇮🇹 How about an episode of objects inspired on flags? Very interesting episode 💪🏼

This man is wholesome, dedicated, precise and Portuguese! All jokes aside, amazing video as always and please make a video for the newest flags!

I could listen to your accent all day!....Excellent video!.

I think the English flag is much older than given credit here, the English Cross on a white banner of some shape dates back to at least the 8th century through it's description by Chaucer, and was a national standard of sorts since the Saxons (used by King Harold) more so, whilst not as the only or the first flag of what became of this nation ever since, it was continuously incorporated into the English flag tradition in some way from that time

I love geography as much as ice cream so love your content and thank you so much for the channel! :-)

The Andalusian flag (horizontal green-white-green) is first referenced in a poem from 1091, so it is at least from the XI, making it the oldest still-in-use flag of Europe.

Wales is not represented on the UK flag because it was in the Kingdom of England

The flag OF Tunisia is also considerade as one of the oldest flags in the world, being unchanged ever since it got design back in 1827, the flag of Tunisia is the oldest flag in the Arab world and in all of Africa

At 12:27. I think you made a mistake with France. "Le tricoleur" was actually modeled on the medieval flag of Paris. If you see the Paris flag, it's a block of blue on the left and a block of red on the right. Both blocks are vertical. It's like the Haitian flag, but not horizontal. Then in the middle of the Paris flag is a coat of arms, which is a sailing ship. Blue and red were the colors of the Paris militia, one of the first armed forces to take up arms to defend the National Assembly against the King during the French Revolution. The white block in the middle was added to the Paris flag a little later to signify the white of the Bourbon kings. "Le tricoleur" was a flag of reconciliation, signifying that the National Assembly still wanted to include the King in the new government. That became the official flag of France in 1790, when King Louis XVI was still a constitutional monarch and not a beheaded monarch. LOL.

According to DG Muller, who researched it end 19th Century, the red-white-blue flag was already in use several decades before the Dutch Rebellion of 1568. The orange-white-blue flag was introduced to honour Prince William I of Orange-Nassau shortly after he was killed in 1584.

You forgot to mention the Eppsteiners and Traungauers when talking about the Austrian flag. The red white red has been around since 1122 as the Traungauers, who used to be dukes of Styria, took their CoA over when the Eppensteiners died out. The two families were linked by marriage. A few decades later, a contract was forged between the Traungauers and the Babenbergs that the latter would inherit the formers' possession - including the original Eppensteiner CoA. The rest about the Habsburgs inheriting the CoA from the Babenbergs etc is correct though.

good and interesting video, exactly what i wanted when i clicked on this video

Neat, should be a great video.. always awesome content!

Lol the Swiss had a Rasta flag for a short while, love it!

Just to add to the discussion, interesting idea that the French flag was based on the Dutch flag. But never heard this mentioned in French history. The origin of the tricolor flag is actually that of the cocarde (mentioned), which has the blue and red colors of the city of Paris, merged with the white color of the monarchy. This tricolor cocarde was then transformed into a striped flag. But the Paris mob had hardly any idea that the Dutch represented any republican ideal. Especially since when the tricolor was adopted, France was actually still a monarchy and not a republic.

The flag of Sardinia is quite old as well and has had few minor changes. I believe it has been created around the 1020

Can you make a video of the oldest cities in the world that still exists?

If you look up the Electoral Palatinate, they have a flag dating as early as 915 A.D. then appears again in 1085 A.D. I just thought it would be really cool if Germany somehow brought it back as the main flag as the Pfälz-Rhineland (Pfälzerland).

how convenient that the borders all follow rivers perfectly..

Just curious, I'd love a deep dive on monarchist flags. The french royal flags are all fascinating, from blue to white to blue to white to blue again. It just feels interestjng

Hey General Knowledge where do you rank Liberia Flag on this list? sense Liberia gained their independence from america in 1827

The Dutch flag also had the issue of the orange stripe not being colourfast as the yellow dye would fade far faster than the red dye.

Please tell me Georgia's flag was seen in 1608 and the video length overlay was intentional

0:00: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 The video discusses the oldest flags in the world, starting with Denmark's flag adopted in 1219. 3:27: ! The video discusses the history and origins of the flags of Austria and Latvia. 6:48: 🇸🇪 Sweden's flag, influenced by Denmark, features a golden cross on a blue background and was officially adopted in 1562 by King Gustav the first. 10:46: 🌍 European colonization interrupted the sovereignty of many American, African, and Asian nations, making European countries the oldest in terms of continuous sovereignty. 13:18: 🏳 The video discusses the history and significance of flags in Italy, San Marino, and the United Kingdom. Recap by Tammy AI

The Dutch flag is the oldest tricolor, the flag of France is borrowed from the Dutch, that is a fact.

Interestingly, Valdemar is the Scandinavian version of the slavic name Vladimir, indicating the connections with what is today Russia and Ukraine that were established during the Viking age.

Flags are Love, Flags are Life

a coat of arms version would be interesting. for example germanys coat of arms is still more or less the same as the hre version even though the flag is only from 1848

The History of Turkish Flag There is no certain information about the history of Turkish flag. But there are some rumours about how the flag was occured. The most certain information is that star and crescent ,which is in the flag, was used by Turkish and Islamic governments in different terms. It can be seen that the cross represents christianity and star and crescent represent islamic. It is told that the flag ,which is the most closest to today’s flag, began to used after the first battle of kosovo in ottoman period. Although the war finished with conquest of Ottoman Empire, thousands of soldiers died in this war. Rumour has it that moon shaping in crescent was reflected on blood of soldiers on the night of war (28 july 1389). That made a shape which looked like tha flag that is used today. Also we can see in the researches that the position celestial bodies of kosova on 28 July 1389 reminds of our flag. The usage ,which is the most closest to Turkish flag , happened in the time of 3.Selim on 18th centruy. This situation causes to question the truth of war of kosovo in the respect of explaining 400 years between 14th century and 18th century. Sultan Abdulmejid I provided to make Turkish flag pentacle. In the term of Turkey Republic Government, it was made a law that is intended for the shape and using of Turkish flag on 29 May 1936. Then it is made an adding intended for size of the flag. In the prodution of flag, it is forced to comply with the rates ,which are shown in below, by Law on Turkish flag.

Personally... I'd like to see a video on micronations and their flags. NOT the big well known micronations like Sealand or Molossia or Westarctica or Lieberland... But the thousands of unknown micronations....that are out there.. Like my own little micronation project, which has three components. And, thus, three flags.

Royal flag of England adopted 1152 by King Henry II , and the St. George cross flag adopted in 1180, the flag of England, used at times before this date.

What about the Welsh flag it is dated back to Henry VII battle in Bosworth

Speaking of which- I had a funny conversation with an Italian American and he told me that we "stole" his flag since I'm from Mexico. And then someone else told me my country designed it first. I wonder what the truth is.

Superstitions relating to flags and or events that may have flags treated differently (flying half mast?), most commonly used "meaning" for colors found on flags would be pretty interesting too imo. ex. how many countries use 1 color or element on their flag to mean the people of the nation etc. Quite a few showed up in this vid seeing how many European nations used Crosses. Are there any flags with crosses that didn't have a religious origin?

Why does everyone forget scotland?! I know it's not a country. But it should've been mentioned since it was use in like year 900 or somewhere there

You didn't mention la Senyera ( La señera in spanish ) from Catalunya, València, Aragon and Balearic Isles in Spain. I reckon it's from 1096

Red and white seem to be the colors of choice for early flags.

Thanks for the interesting video! By the way, if you count like that, the Ukrainian flag is not young either, more than 300~370 years of use as a state flag throughout history, greetings from the capital of Slobidsk Ukraine 😉

3:36 King Autocarro lmao

Make a video about Belarus because not many people know about Belarus talk about it’s border changes, flag changes, short independence from the Russo sphere in 1991

11:39 Also, curiously, the colours of the flag of Spain are similar to the colors of the Emirate of Granada.

There is an evidence that suggests that Georgian flag was used in 6-7th Century, not for the Kingdom of Georgia as a whole but the Kingdom of Kartli (East Georgia). The flag was not depicted anywhere but there is a writing that quoted something similar to saying on top of Tbilisi is raised the flag with the 5 crosses, each cross representing 5 castles the city was built around. This would make it the oldest flag in the world.

I’d love to see the youngest flags

The UK’s flag is the oldest one in the world currently that hasn’t been modified at all. Since it was adopted in 1801 nothing has changed, every other flag in the world has been changed at least slightly since then.

Fun fact: the fruit Orange predates the color Orange.

Denmark is the OG, woh

how old is the Cross of St George & the Scottish saltire? as they are both still in use

So, we can say that Denmark takes the first place as is the only one that has been consequently used since it was 'designed'.

Tuga, mais um excelente vídeo. Abraços de São Paulo, Brasil.

Dude, the flag of Spain is based on the flag of the Crown of Aragon, which was a common naval standard and flag design in many Western Mediterranean regions. Red and yellow horizontal stripes. The flag of Castille is quartered castles and lions and that of Navarre is a red flag with chains and they were not used in the Spanish Navy.

Who else loves flags? Raise your hand 🙋‍♂️

The old San Marino flag had a cool size ratio

Lol the captions say Lord Voldemort II ruled Denmark.

Catalan flag is documented in 1187. Still in ise today. Also the oldest in museum is also catalan, a flag of 1239

Armenia's flag was used previously by the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia during the crusades idk how you missed that

Hi!❤

The US even briefly had a 49-star flag, because Alaska became a state several months before Hawaii.

3:02 Denmark has actually had another flag. During the Kalmar Union the three countries together used a yellow-red cross flag.

In this video, it was mentioned that the flag of Turkey is based on the Ottoman Empire flag with the symbol of their religion on the flag. In a previous General Knowledge video, it was pointed out that Islam has no official symbol and the star and crescent moon was adopted by the Ottoman empire when they conquered Constantinople.

GEORGIA LETS GOOOOOOOOO MORE GEORGIAS IN VIDEOS LETS GOOO GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

13:26 England on a boot

Well you have to make this all over again as you observera the oldest flag was actually the swedish 1157...This also means it was the original model for all north

1:36 look at one of them Hint: it’s orange

Please do the Newest Flags

The permanent unification of Italy was achieved in 1861

12:24 actually the crescent and star come from an ancient symbol in byzantium. It’s the other way around from what you said, the crescent and star only became associated with islam because of the ottomans

Polish flag was used at least since 1200s.

The Oldest Countries in the World (That are still Alive Today)

why isn't Tunisia in this list ? its flag dates back to the Fatimid Caliphate or even more

cool

isn't Sri Lankan lion flag from 200bc?

9:50 And then they added the white square, completly ruining the symblism of removing the white.

The Philippine Flag is the oldest National Flag in Southeast Asia which is adopted in 1898 and still using today even it was changed including the color blue

It's a bit weird that you translated the name of the Dutch dynasty "van Oranje" into the literal English translation "of Orange"

Red and Black - 🇦🇱