The Philippines flies its flag upside down to announce a war
Most national flags have one fixed orientation, but the Philippine flag legally flips in wartime, putting its red stripe above the blue. Flags carry more coded meaning than they seem to, from Nordic swallow-tails reserved for the military to Britain's three differently coloured ensigns for different kinds of ship.
Flying a flag to show origin, outside of battle, began at sea. In the thirteenth century Genoa and Venice both used maritime flags, and one naval historian named Genoa among the first states to adopt a national flag. The Dutch tricolour grew from the orange, white and blue Prince's Flag of the war against Spain that began in 1568, turning red, white and blue in the early 1600s; it may be the oldest tricolour still in use. The first Union Flag was decreed on 12 April 1606, joining the crosses of England and Scotland after James VI inherited the English throne.
On land, national flags took off with nationalism from the late eighteenth century. The US flag, first a naval ensign in 1777, became a general national symbol after the Revolution, and the French tricolour came to stand for the Republic in the 1790s. Because the Dutch colours were linked with a republic, and France then reinforced that link, tricolours spread to countries such as Italy, Ireland and Romania and across Latin America. Outside Europe, the Ottoman flag was adopted in 1844 and Japan's in 1870.
Flags change when regimes do. Germany's imperial colours were black, white and red; the Weimar Republic chose black, red and gold; the Nazis reverted and then substituted their party flag; both postwar German states returned to black, red and gold. The American flag gains a star for each new state under an 1818 law.
Vexillologists distinguish civil flags anyone may fly, state flags for government use and war flags for the military, with matching trio of ensigns at sea. Many countries, including the US, use one design for everything, while several Latin American states add a coat of arms only to the official version. Japan, China and Taiwan are among the few with separate war flags.
Source: National flag
