An interchangeable variant of the national flag with lighter shades
The national flag of France (French: drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue (hoist side), white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the Tricolour (French: Tricolore), although the flag of Ireland and others are also known as such. The design was adopted after the French Revolution, where the revolutionaries were influenced by the horizontally striped red-white-blue flag of the Netherlands.[2][3] While not the first tricolour, it became one of the most influential flags in history. The tricolour scheme was later adopted by many other nations in Europe and elsewhere, and, according to the Encyclopædia Britannica has historically stood "in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past".
Before the tricolour was adopted the royal government used many flags, the best known being a blue shield and gold fleurs-de-lis (the Royal Arms of France) on a white background, or state flag. Early in the French Revolution, the Paris militia, which played a prominent role in the storming of the Bastille, wore a cockade of blue and red,[4] the city's traditional colours. According to French general Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, white was the "ancient French colour" and was added to the militia cockade to form a tricolour, or national, cockade of France.[5]
This cockade became part of the uniform of the National Guard, which succeeded the militia and was commanded by Lafayette.[6] The colours and design of the cockade are the basis of the Tricolour flag, adopted in 1790,[7] originally with the red nearest to the flagpole and the blue farthest from it. A modified design by Jacques-Louis David was adopted in 1794. The royal white flag was used during the Bourbon Restoration from 1815 to 1830; the tricolour was brought back after the July Revolution and has been used since then, except for an interruption for a few days in 1848.[8] Since 1976, there have been two versions of the flag in varying levels of use by the state: the original (identifiable by its use of navy blue) and one with a lighter shade of blue. Since July 2020, France has used the older variant by default, including at the Élysée Palace.[9][10]
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference lightyear was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Eriksen, Thomas Hylland; Jenkins, Richard, eds. (2007). Flag, nation and symbolism in Europe and America. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-93496-8. OCLC 182759362.
^"Flags That Look Alike | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
^"Presa della Bastiglia, il 14 luglio e il rosso della first lady messicana Angelica" (in Italian). 14 July 2015. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
^Marie Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert Du Motier Lafayette (marquis de), Memoirs, correspondence and manuscripts of General Lafayette, vol. 2, p. 252.
^Gaines, James (September 2015). "Washington & Lafayette". Smithsonian Magazine.
^Curiat, Andrea (3 March 2011). "La storia del tricolore". Il Sole 24 ORE (in Italian).
^"Les couleurs du drapeau de 1848". Revue d'Histoire du Xixe Siècle - 1848. 28 (139): 237–238. 1931.
^Cite error: The named reference moreau was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Macron switches to using navy blue on France's flag - reports". BBC News. 14 November 2021.
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