Red, White and Blue Flags

About Red, White & Blue

Red, white, and blue is the most common color triad in national flags. Its modern history begins with the Dutch Republic, whose orange-white-blue Prinsenvlag became red-white-blue in the 17th century, when red replaced orange. Peter the Great brought the same colors back to Russia after observing Dutch shipbuilding, and they spread from there into the Slavic world. France adopted blue, white and red during the Revolution; the United States, the United Kingdom, and dozens of former colonies and successor states followed, each with its own arrangement and symbolism. The combination is so widespread that it serves almost as a default — a flag that wants to look like a national flag. The shared colors do not mean the countries share heritage: their use ranges from monarchy to republic to socialist state, and the meaning attached to each color shifts dramatically between flags.