Tricolour

French tricolour flag

A tricolour is a flag or banner having three colours, usually in approximately equal size (horizontally or vertically) and lacking additional symbols. One of the first tricolours and the oldest tricolour still in use today is the flag of the Netherlands; one of the first vertical tricolours is the Tricolour of France.

Variety of triband

The tricolour is a specific type of triband. In a triband, the design is of three vertical, horizontal, or diagonal stripes, often formed - from an heraldic point of view - by the placement of a horizontal or vertical stripe (a bar or a fess, respectively), over a background. The triband may thus have two stripes of the same colour split by a stripe of a second colour (examples of this include the flags of Canada and Spain).

In a tricolour, the two outer stripes are of different colours, hence the name ("tri-colour" = three colours). Tricolours can thus be seen as a subset of tribands.

List of tricolours and tribands

Below is a list with other tricolours organized by continent.

Africa

Tricolours from Africa

• The flag of Cameroon (defaced)
• The flag of Chad
• The flag of Côte d'Ivoire
• The flag of Egypt (defaced)
• The flag of Ethiopia (defaced)
• The flag of Gabon
• The flag of Ghana (defaced)
• The flag of The Gambia
• The flag of Guinea
• The flag of Lesotho (defaced)
• The flag of Malawi (defaced)
• The flag of Mali
• The flag of Niger (defaced)
• The flag of Senegal (defaced)
• The flag of Sierra Leone

Other tribands from Africa

• The flag of Nigeria

North and South America

Tricolours from North America and South America

• The flag of Bolivia (defaced)
• The flag of Colombia
• The flag of Ecuador (defaced)
• The Flag of Labrador (defaced)
• The flag of Mexico (defaced)
• The flag of Paraguay (defaced)
• The flag of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (defaced)
• The flag of Venezuela (defaced)

Other tribands from North America and South America

• The flag of Argentina (defaced)
• The flag of Barbados (defaced)
• The flag of Belize (defaced) (bars are more unequal than most)
• The flag of Canada (defaced)
• The flag of El Salvador (defaced)
• The flag of Guatemala (defaced)
• The flag of Honduras (defaced)
• The flag of Nicaragua (defaced)
• The flag of Peru

Asia

Tricolours from Asia

• The flag of Afghanistan (defaced)
• The flag of India (defaced)
• The flag of Iran (defaced)
• The flag of Iraq (defaced)
• The flag of Tajikistan (defaced)
• The flag of Syria (defaced)
• The flag of Yemen

Other tribands from Asia

• The flag of Cambodia (defaced)
• The flag of Laos (defaced)
• The flag of Lebanon (defaced)
• The flag of Mongolia (defaced)

Europe

Tricolours from Europe

• The flag of Andorra (defaced)
• The flag of Armenia
• The flag of Azerbaijan (defaced)
• The flag of Belgium
• The flag of Bulgaria
• The flag of Croatia (defaced)
• The flag of Estonia
• The flag of France
• The flag of Germany
• The flag of Hungary
• The flag of Ireland
• The flag of Italy
• The flag of Lithuania
• The flag of Luxembourg
• The flag of Moldova (defaced)
• The flag of the Netherlands (oldest tricolour)
• The flag of Romania
• The flag of Russia
• The flag of Serbia (defaced)
• The flag of Slovakia (defaced)
• The flag of Slovenia (defaced)

Other tribands from Europe

• The flag of Austria
• The flag of Latvia
• The flag of Spain (defaced)

Oceania

(No tricolours.)

Other tribands from Oceania

• The flag of French Polynesia (defaced)
• The flag of Norfolk Island (defaced)

Non-national

Non-national tricolours

• The state flag of Iowa (defaced)
• The state flag of Missouri (defaced)
• The flag of New York City (defaced)
• The "Marcus Garvey's UNIA" flag
• The official flag of Queen's University at Kingston (red, gold and blue)
• The unofficial flag of Mars, advocated by the Mars Society and flown (insofar as it is possible) in space.
• The flag of North Holland
• The flag of Gelderland

Other non-national tribands

• The flag of Andalucia (defaced)
• The state flag of Colorado (defaced)
• The Acadian flag (defaced)

Former nations and former national flags

Tricolours of former nations and former national flags

• The flag of Upper Volta
• The flag of Biafra (defaced)
• The Flag of Gran Colombia (defaced)
• The flag of Newfoundland
• The flag of Yugoslavia
• The former flag of Rwanda (defaced)
• An early flag of Chile, disused since 1817
• The flag of Belarus in 1918 and 1991-1995.
• The 1959-1963 flag of Iraq (defaced)
• The flag of Araucania and Patagonia
• The former Flag of Spain, during the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936) (Red, Yellow, Purple)

Other tribands of former nations and former national flags

• The flag of Rhodesia

Confusion and profusion of meanings

As can be seen in the list above, many tricolours and tribands have additional emblems in colours that are not necessarily those of the stripes. They are still, however, usually regarded by vexillologists as tricolours.

Some vexillologists go further still, and describe flags containing three fimbriated stripes as fimbriated tricolours. In this design, three broad stripes might be separated by two very thin stripes immediately above and below the central stripe. Flags of this type include the flags of Uzbekistan, Kenya, North Korea and Gambia.

Vexillologists also occasionally describe flags of which the main element is three stripes as being "based on a tricolour (or triband) design". Flags such as the flag of the Bahamas and the flag of Palestine fall into this category.

Finally, some vexillologists take the meaning of the term at its barest, and simply use it to describe any flag containing just three colours, irrespective of the design. Thus, the flags of the United States and the United Kingdom might be described as tricolours.

See also

• List of flags with three colours
• Triband (flag)
• Pan-Slavic colors
• Pan-Arab colors
• Pan-African colors
• National flags inspired by the flag of Turkey
• Gallery of triband flags

External link

• The National Flag of France The French tricolore and its influence on other tricolour national and republican flags.

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