Flags in history and protocol

By Jean-Claude Meyer

The objective of this concise book is widder than just explaining the protocol of flags per se.

A more basic question is often set aside, namely why should one pay any attention on how to place or how to treat flags? We all understand the attention paid to heads of States or governments in protocol. Flags however are basically nothing more than a piece of coloured tissue fixed to a pole.

The book, after defining the term “flag”, summarizes the origin and the development of flags, as well as their possible subdivisions in order to be able address their emotional power which makes that they are more than just a piece of tissue fixed to staff poles in the eyes of the wider public. The basic rules regarding the protocol of flags are presented once their psychological importance established. The question of the protection given to flags - both regarding to their design and to their dignity - as well as the consequences of the violation of the latter is the closing chapter.

The work is illustrated by pictures and stories selected randomly, mostly coming out of a European context, to underscore the everyday relevance of the points presented.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Release date: Aug 21, 2013
• ISBN: 9782322005222

Jean-Claude Meyer

Jean-Claude Meyer was born in Luxembourg-city, Luxembourg, in 1967. His is married and has two children. He obtained degrees in political science and international relations, in international law, in public management, and in protocol and ceremonial. He is working in the Luxembourg civil service, and currently living in Brussels, Belgium.

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Chapter I. Definitions of flags

The political science dictionaries I consulted did not mention the word flag³ strangely enough. One exception was the dictionary edited by Jean-Paul Ancracio, who however, instead of defining what a flag is, just establishes a distinction with regard to the "pavilion".⁴ The only book I found in the social science section of the university library at the Université Libre de Bruxelles entirely dedicated to flags⁵ was placed in the subsection dealing with nationalism/nation states.

However, one has more chances to find the mentioning of "flags" in international public law books. The Dictionnaire de droit international public edited by Professor Jean Salmon distinguishes between two types of flags, namely:

A. Roll of tissue attached to a pole, carrying the colours, the emblems of a state, a nation, an international organization or a grouping, and adopted like their distinctive sign. It is carried by the weapons, raised on the public buildings of the state, its embassies, its permanent missions, consulates and representations to the international organizations. For the ships, it takes usually the name of pavilion (…).

B. Piece of tissue attached to a pole with certain characteristics or without any signs at all and employed to make signals or to distinguish a special mission. One speaks thus about a white flag (…).⁶ (my translation)

Another definition is the following:

FLAG (or Flagge, a common Teutonic word in this sense, but apparently first recorded in English), a piece of bunting or similar material, admitting of various shapes and colours, and waved in the wind from a staff or cord for use in display as a standard, ensign or signal. The word may simply be derived onomatopoeically, or transferred from the botanical flag; or an original meaning of a piece of cloth may be connected with the 12th-century English flage, meaning a baby's garment; the verb to flag, i.e. droop, may have originated in the idea of a pendulous piece of bunting, or may be connected with the O. Fr. flaguir, to become flaccid.⁷

A similar word is emblem, in the sense that state emblems are

symbolic figures or signs which are reproduced on the flag or on a badge like a characteristic sign of the state (my translation).⁸

Many international organizations also adopt an emblem and a flag, both being mostly identical. See for example the signs/emblems of the United Nations or the European Union, which one finds on their publications as well as on their flags.

Law books contain often articles dealing directly or indirectly with flags as protected emblems, or mentioned within a specific context, for example jus in belli or methods of warfare, maritime law, armed forces etc. (see chapter VI).

One can also find a lot of information about flags on the Internet, either by finding electronic copies of printed articles or through information contained on various vexillology websites.⁹ The quality of information contained therein can however vary, depending on the sites.¹⁰ Some governmental and nongovernmental websites may give detailed information.¹¹

³   McLEAN Iain, McMILLAN Alistair, Oxford concise dictionary of politics, 3rd ed, Oxford University Press, 2009, 599p / MOKHTAR Lakehal, Dictionnaire de science politique, 2nd ed, L’Harmattan, Paris, 2005, 422p / SANDHAL Pierre, de BEA Louise, Dictionnaire politique et diplomatique, Librairie technique, without a date, Paris, 193p

⁴   PANCRACIO Jean-Paul, Dictionnaire de la Diplomatie, Editions Micro Buss, 1998, p 232

⁵   ERIKSEN Thomas Hylland, JENKINS Richard (ed), Flag, nation and symbolism in Europe and America, Routledge, London and New York, 2007, 193p

⁶   SALMON Jean (Ed) (1), Dictionnaire de droit international public, Bruylant, Bruxelles, 2001, "A. Pièce d’étoffe attachée à une hampe et portant les couleurs, les emblèmes d’un Etat, d’une nation, d’une organisation internationale ou d’un groupement et adoptée comme leur signe distinctif. Il est porté par les armes, arboré sur les bâtiments publics de l’Etat, de ses ambassades, de ses missions permanentes, consulats et représentations auprès des organisations internationales. Pour les navires, il prend habituellement le nom de pavillon (…) B. Pièce d’étoffe attachée à une hampe avec certains signes distinctifs ou sans signe du tout et employée pour faire des signaux ou pour distinguer une mission spéciale. On parle ainsi de drapeau blanc (…) ", p 367

⁷   Flag (1) quoted in http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Flag

⁸   SALMON Jean (ed) (1), op cit., p 421

⁹   Such as: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags / http://www.ralfstelter.de / http://www.fiav.org/FIAV.html / http://www.flaggenlexikon.de/ http://www.flaggenkunde.de/

¹⁰  See the warnings on the quality of the information’s found in NELSON Philip L, The Cybervexillology problem in Articles from NAVA News and RAVEN, North American Vexillological Association, 2001

¹¹  Such as: http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/honours/7125.aspx#how / http://www.india.gov.in/knowindia/national_flag.php / http://www.chinaflagfoundation.org/en/about.htm / http://www.flagaustnat.asn.au/default.php / http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/etiqtt/index-eng.cfm, http://www.usflag.org/flagetiquette.html

Chapter II History of flags

II.1. First mention

If a "flag" is considered by its purpose, namely being a rallying sign or a sign of identification, some authors go back in history as far as the Egyptians, the Assyrians or the first Jews to trace its origin. However, one is then mostly talking of symbols or objects.¹² The oldest flag or symbol that is known seems to be a metallic standard found in what is now Iran, and dating back 5.000 years.¹³

The first reference to the use of objects for identifying an assembly, a military unit, notable persons, or goods, seems to date back to 550 BC in the Ancient Egypt.¹⁴ The symbol for the Pharaoh was the hawk, an allusion to the good Horus. Assyrian soldiers carried representations of a bullock. Roman military units carried first representations of an Eagle as their symbol.¹⁵

Many sources quote different dates when the first description was recorded of a fabric flag. One source puts the first description of flags as having been done by Greek authors at the end of the 5th century BC.¹⁶ Another source quotes a painting on a wall in a Samnite colony in Southern Italy dating 400 BC.¹⁷ It seems that devices and ornaments figured already on the sails of Egyptian or Assyrian ships.¹⁸ The Old Testament contains various references to flags. When Moses assembled and brought the twelve tribes out of Egypt, each of the twelve gathered under its flag, on which an image was painted, mostly images of animal deities.¹⁹

The Romans used also symbols for their army units, the legions. Their cavalry units carried a rectangular banner, the vexillum, hanging from a piece of wood fixed cross-wise.²⁰ From this word derives the word Vexillology, namely the study of flags.²¹ Fabric flags were later also used by the Christian Roman emperors,²² sometimes just suspended, as modern flags are, on a staff to one side.²³

The habit of carrying standards or ensign seems to have travelled from the Middle East via India to China where however their design was transformed. The Chinese flags, made out of silk, were easier to colour and they waved more in the wind than the heavy tissue of the Vexillum, therefore making a bigger impression on the observer.²⁴ The first cloth flags, light, large, coloured, enduring and fixed to a stick, seem to have originated from China starting at 100 BC, where they were used for military but also for religious purposes.²⁵ The colours used were associated with philosophical or religious concepts.²⁶

However, it is questionable if one can speak at that time already of flags in the modern meaning of the word.

Although similar in some functions to modern flags, these devices were all portable devices and not flown from flagpoles. In consequence, flags in their modern sense were still to be invented.²⁷

The use of flags really seems to have taken off around the 11th century with the Crusades.²⁸ One reads that the Prophet Mohammed used first a black flag before the colour green took over. However, the Arabs also adapted the design - colours and inscriptions - of their flags to specific individuals or dynasties, while at the same time trying to establish a link through association with the Prophet Mohammed.²⁹

The Arab world contributed significantly to the modern flag tradition by inventing cloth flags with greater adaptability. (…) Associating colours with dynasties and/or individual leaders reinforced the particular ethos of a political identity and later became the basis for all modern flags.³⁰

Flags were often used to identify soldiers on the battlefield. The first sign used by the crusaders was a cross, whose heritage can still be seen in some contemporary flags such as the flags of the Nordic countries. Once the crusaders became familiar with the use of flags in the Arab world, they brought them back with them to Europe where they started adorning the tops of their castles.³¹

The emergence of the heraldry during the Middle Ages in order to identify persons and family lines also led to the inclusion of the coats of arms onto the flags.³² Some state flag designs still bear witness of this. The ecclesiastics helped in the change in the 12th century of seals from being signs of identification of individuals to becoming signs of identification of entities. Afterwards the heraldic coats of arms became linked to specific territories.³³ One can therefore trace back various national or state flags in Europe to the armorial or coloured flags used by the former ruling dynasties.

Flags also had throughout history an important function as rallying points around which military units could organize. This was particular important at times where there did not exist any standardised uniforms, which would have allowed to distinguish friend from foe. Consequently, one does not speak in these cases of flags, but of "colours".³⁴

In the 16th century, the need for signal systems at sea, as well as the organization of larger armies, brought with it the emergence of two types of flags, the ones with simpler designs and the ones with more elaborated designs with armorial bearings.³⁵

II.2. The emergence of national flags

Flags, besides representing states, were used more often to identify the reigning houses, as monarchies dominated largely as the form of state organization until the end of the First World War. However, some flags already started to emerge as a means of identification of nations. One thinks of the French tricolour, reduced and popularised via the ‘tricolour cockade’ adopted during the French Revolution of 1789, the flag of the United States of America or the German tricolour at end of the 18th, early 19th century.³⁶

Thus, if we understand the ‘nation’ as having developed after 1789 we must conclude that ‘national’ symbols as such did not exist in earlier times. This does not mean that pre-modern communalities had no need to employ symbols in order to represent their societies. On the contrary, symbols that indicate belonging to a community constitute a ubiquitous feature of social life and are not exclusive to nations. However, early symbolic devices were not indicative of nationality in its modern sense, and, even if pre-modern loyalties did exist, it is premature to talk about nations in the middle Ages.³⁷

Thus the national flag appears as a statement of the ‘modern’ mass-participant nation of citizens, illustrating people’s desire to express a new kind of ‘sameness’, nationhood and citizenship. More correctly, national flags emerge after having been selected and established by nation-states, nations without states and states without nations. Elites in pursuit of state power play an essential role in this process. However, many flags survived over time and only managed to do so because of their support from and resonance with the people.³⁸

If flags are linked to the nation they represent, they are not necessarily everlasting. Flags of countries can change over time. As it can happen when countries undergo profound changes, such as revolutions, see the changes to the Libyan flag in August 2011, or internal changes, see the changes to the flag of Myanmar in October 2012.³⁹ The fact that some flags have been changed over time by the states which they represent confirms the view that flags are linked to an identity (see chapter IV) and change with it. The same holds true regarding the flags of newly created countries, either through decolonisation or