Talk:Timeline of national flags

Adding Byzantine Empire Flag?
For the purposes of Accuracy I added the flag of the Byzantine empire to the before section for Greece and the the Balkans. Would like to add it to Turkey as well but it appears I have made a mess of the Europe Table adding it to it. If anyone knows how to fix it I would be very gratefully if you could.

330


 * I don't believe that the Byzantine flag would be appropriate given the time frame of the time line is from the 17th century onward, a time where the Roman Empire (Byzantine) had long since become an extinct state (in 1453, the Fall of Constantinople). Including that flag would require a reworking of the present timescale used on this page.


 * On a related note, there never was a real Roman/Byzantine flag. The Byzantines didn't engage in same customs of heraldry as seen Kingdoms in Western Europe. For most of the Byzantine's history, the banner used was usually the personal banner of the ruling family of the time. The Tetragrammic cross (the image you intended to use), was the closest thing to a national flag, but its frequency varied throughout the empire's (although it was used a lot in the last two centuries of its existence). With the time line in mind, it also seems prudent to note that the 330 design would be less appropriate, with this design from the 14th century being more friendly to the overall time line; as seen here. Leventio (talk) 04:56, 27 October 2014 (UTC)

The time frame selected (since 17th century) reflects Europe and West constitutions of national states. For almost the rest of the world this viewpoint has no use. The Turkish state established in 1920. The flag is in official use since 1844.By this time, the Greek state was already established (1821) and a Greek flag existed. Moreover the Greek flag was in use while the Ottoman official flag not existed! The star and crescent motive as a flag theme was a modern (re)invention of the time. So why use this military flag for 1453? Is this a page about flags or about empires domination timeline?--Vardos (talk) 08:02, 2 May 2015 (UTC)

What is a "Sovereign State"?
What constitutes a "sovereign state"? Kaliningrad and Greenland are now listed, but they're parts of other nations (Russia and Denmark). Somaliland was removed from this list, yet it is de facto a sovereign nation with its own history; the Somaliland government controls its own territory (even though no other nation recognizes this state). The flag of Somaliland flies over its capital, Hergesia. The same can be said for Northern Cyprus... Shouldn't de facto states be included in this list?


 * I believe the table is following the Gallery of sovereign-state flags flags, which is the hyperlinked from the word sovereign state in the article. This would mean that Somaliland should not have been removed from the list. However, Kaliningrad and Greenland are not sovereign states. Greenland while being an autonomous country, is not a sovereign nation as it does not have supreme, independent authority over a territory (Denmark still controls it's foreign affairs and defence), in many ways it is like the Special Administered Regions of China (Hong Kong and Macau). I don't know how Kaliningrad would even be slightly applicable to this however as it is a fully federated member of the Russian Federation, despite being separated from the rest of the country. CuffX (talk) 09:03, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * De facto states are not sovereign nations. 90.184.241.194 (talk) 13:13, 9 September 2010 (UTC)


 * If international recognition is a criteria for inclusion (or exclusion in the case of South Ossetia and Northern Cyprus), then Taiwan as well as the PRC and others would have to be removed from the list, since they only have partial recognition. One "sovereign" entity is the Sovereign Military Order of Malta - a "de jure" state, but not "de facto". Should that entity be included? There appears to be no clear description of a "sovereign state" - I think we have to use judgement. Kaliningrad and Greenland were easy, but other entities shouldn't be taken off the list due to lack of recognition. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs) 21:16, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Korea
What evidence is there that the Taegeuk (Yin-yang+trigrams) flag was in use before 1882? -- AnonMoos (talk) 23:03, 5 January 2010 (UTC)

Greece
Can someone add Greece? 1453 1769  1828  1833  1862  1967  1970  1975   —Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.67.215.217 (talk) 16:49, 4 May 2010 (UTC)


 * Greece has been added 90.184.241.194 (talk) 11:29, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Missing countries
Please fill and delete once they have been added 90.184.241.194 (talk) 11:42, 24 July 2010 (UTC)


 * Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cyprus, Hungary, Malta and Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka removed from table as they were added in article. (talk) 09:23, 23 August 2010 (UTC)
 * Removed Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, South Ossetia as they are not sovereign states 90.184.241.194 (talk) 13:08, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Also removed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Palestine 90.184.241.194 (talk) 13:10, 9 September 2010 (UTC)
 * Consider removing Kosovo on the same reason as Abkhazia and South Ossetia since they all are partially recongnized states 109.108.38.129 (talk) 10:29, 12 September 2010 (UTC)
 * I've added Nicaragua in the article. --Dэя-Бøяg 14:51, 28 September 2010 (UTC)

The removal of Tranistria should be considered for it is only a partially recognized state, such as South Ossetia, etc. I also agree with the removal of Kosovo for the same reason. -Hanson

Flag of Italy (2003-2006).svg Flag of Italy 2003-2006: unofficial (?)
I have seen, surprised, that we have changed our flag (i'm italian) between 2003 and 2006. I remember that proposal of the government to change the green ( vs ), but i remember it was largely rejected and the proposal taken as a (silly) joke. Nobody in Italy has changed the flag, neither on town halls or for football fans. I know about this change, as official, only here. But i'm not sure. It could be an official law abolished in 2006 but nobody in Italy has noted this "change". I'll find for references. --95.234.191.42 (talk) 03:29, 28 September 2010 (UTC)


 * Wait, what? Do we have an RS for this? Also, no offence, but sometimes the government in Italy gives me a headache. Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie Say Shalom! 06:29, 3 May 2011 (UTC)

thanks --ClungeLover69 (talk) 21:30, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
 * Here's a source for the 2003 colors: . Illegitimate Barrister 00:05, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

India
India includes the flags it flew during its british colonial holding, should the Portuguese india flags be there too? after all the portuguese were there first and last, the longest there. Its what is correct. Cristiano Tomás (talk) 22:51, 8 January 2012 (UTC)


 * In history, Portugal only controlled small colonies of India, so it wouldn't make sense for India's flag to be that of Portugal's. It's like saying the French controlled a generous amount of land in North America, therefore the entire flag of the continent (if there were flags for continents other than Antarctica) would be French. It just wouldn't make sense. CheclicerateCaptain92 (talk) 21:18, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

South and North America
Why use the flag of the New Spain in every country of South America? This is a mistake, is more, the half of the United States really form part of this, but not the southern of america. Bolivia in the independence days form part de Argentina, Cornelio Saavedra, the first "president" for Argentina, born in Chuquisaca, now in Bolivia, and known this region like Upper Peru.

168.226.217.166 (talk) 13:46, 1 February 2012 (UTC)Hernán168.226.217.166 (talk) 13:46, 1 February 2012 (UTC)

One of the earlier flags for the US was never an official flag, and should not be shown in the timeline. I also realized that the flags used during the civil war are not shown. -Hanson

No nations ever cosidered the confederacy a independant state. If it was put on, all rebellions would need to be put on. It shouldn't be on here. 96.32.205.32 (talk) 23:14, 1 March 2018 (UTC)


 * In the intervening years, both British flags and Confederate flags had been added to the page as supposedly being US national flags. I have removed them. -Rwv37 (talk) 21:48, 4 May 2023 (UTC)

Nazi flags
I'm very much opposed to the inclusion of the Nazi flag in the timeline of countries like Belgium, the Netherlands. Those countries were never officially part of Nazi Germany. They were only occupied by it.--Wester (talk) 20:01, 17 March 2012 (UTC)

I agree with wester about this issue but on the other hand I realized that the Nazi flag was never shown in the Japan timeline. Japan was Nazi during WWII. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.54.187.116 (talk) 05:13, 8 June 2012 (UTC)


 * Wow, just wow. Japan was an ally of Nazi Germany in World War II, not a part of it. Its like saying that Russia was apart of Great Britain, because they were allies during the war. As for the Nazi flag on occupied European territories, I'm assuming its based on the fact that many of them were either Reichskommissariat or Nazi Military Administration, all of which flew the swastika as its flag. Leventio (talk) 12:25, 29 July 2012 (UTC)

Good point about the Nazi flags - most of the countries occupied by Nazi Germany continued to fly national flags, alongside that of the occupier. Even "Bohemia and Moravia" (Czech Republic), which was annexed to Germany as a "protectorate", had a distinctive flag. I think only Poland (the so-called "General Government") was forbidden from displaying any trace of national identity, including a flag. Also, Luxembourg was annexed to Germany and therefore was not permitted to fly its flag. I agree the swastika could be removed from most European countries. snd3054 18:14, 6 August 2012 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs)

Why does this page show a Nazi flag for all of the countries that the Germans conquered except for France? Be consistant, either show it for all or none. Maybe this flag should show for France during the early 1940s? http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:VichyFlag.svg&page=1 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.252.45.224 (talk) 03:49, 4 November 2012 (UTC)

I agree with Wester. I noticed this when looking for earlies flags of the Scandinavian countries. Neither Norway nor Denmark used the swastika flag as a national flag during the occupation. Even though the German occupation was and still is an important part of these countries' history, it was never a part of the history of their national flags--Which is what I feel this page should be about. 80.203.32.9 (talk) 11:38, 6 June 2013 (UTC)
 * As a compromise, one could split the timeline for a Nazi-occupied country in half, using both the flag of the occupied country and the Nazi flag. The U.S. timeline already does for the CSA. Illegitimate Barrister 23:37, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Kiribati
Has the Kiribati flag actually changed in 2005 ? On the timeline, the 1979 and 2005 flags link to the same image... Same thing for Samoa and Fiji actually !  Maimai  009  19:33, 7 June 2012 (UTC)
 * I deleted the incorrect information about Fiji, Kiribati and Samoa. 87.199.9.40 (talk) 15:27, 18 August 2012 (UTC)

Portugal
The timeline of the Portuguese flag is wrong. Why does it start only on 1667? The United States had a flag before Portugal did!? It makes no sense. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Portugal — Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.64.30.86 (talk) 00:05, 4 November 2012 (UTC)


 * This timeline starts with flags that were in use as of 1700. The first Portuguese flag shown dates from 1667 and was in use until 1707.  There were a number of previous flags that are not shown on this timeline (as is true for other countries, e.g. France).  The "American" flag is actually the British flag that dates from 1606 - since (of course) the United States did not exist as a separate nation at the time.  HappyJake (talk) 20:10, 5 July 2016 (UTC)

Ghana
I notice on the Ghana timeline is shows the flag of the Union of African States as the Ghanaian national flag from 1961 to 1964. This is wrong - the 1957 flag was in use for Ghana during this time. The UAS was a loose community of states, not a nation - and as such showing this as the Ghanaian flag is equivalent to showing the flag of the Commonwealth for Canada, or the flag of the European Union for France. Grutness...wha?  07:05, 19 September 2013 (UTC)

Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic timeline not fitting
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic flag timeline doesnt fit in the graphic (from 1931 onwards). Could anyone solve this problem?. Regards, --HCPUNXKID (talk) 17:08, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
 * ✅. Should be correct now. Si Br4  &#9873; 19:09, 9 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks!--HCPUNXKID (talk) 01:42, 12 October 2013 (UTC)

Monaco: What changed?
The table now displays a new cell for Monaco for 2013, but the new flag appears to be exactly the same as the previous one (it's even linked to the same file). Anyone know what's going on? GeoEvan (talk) 18:47, 7 February 2014 (UTC)

Agree, can't find any reference for it, I believe nothing changed. Can anyone delete it, until someone can provide source? -JAck — Preceding unsigned comment added by 198.144.156.137 (talk) 21:48, 5 March 2014 (UTC)


 * ✅. GeoEvan (talk) 03:34, 10 March 2014 (UTC)

Brazil
Plz add the flag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Flag_of_Empire_of_Brazil_(1870-1889).svg Leosls (talk) 19:54, 6 December 2014 (UTC)

War of 1812
If occupied wartime territories are represented by an enemy flag (e.g. the CSA for the U.S. in the American Civil War, Nazi Germany for Poland during World War II), should the British flag be used to represent U.S. territory held by the U.K. during the War of 1812? Likewise with Imperial Japan in World War II? Illegitimate Barrister 23:30, 27 December 2014 (UTC)

Soviet Republic flags
Should the flags of Soviet Republics not be included in the timeline of the 15 former SSRs? Although they were part of the Soviet Union and the flags weren't truly "national", they were unique to each republic, and are similar in status to colonial flags. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs) 04:09, 12 October 2015 (UTC)

Hello, regarding the flags of the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSRs, you removed them because they were not "national flags". I had added them because other Soviet Republic flags are currently included (e.g. Estonian SSR). As to the status of SSR flags, are they not similar to the colonial flags in the various timelines? Although they didn't represent independent states, they were distinct flags used in their territories, and are part of the heritage of those nations. For example, the Seychelles timeline shows a British colonial flag; the Union Flag isn't the only flag shown prior to independence. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs) 01:00, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I did not know that most other former Soviet states in the list already used the respective SSR flags instead of the federal one. I disagree that they're similar in status to colonies: by definition colonies are autonomous entities that aren't fully integrated into the controlling state, and are therefore often considered separate national entities (which I don't fully endorse either), unlike federal country subdivisions. Is there any difference between the SSRs and e.g. the U.S. or German states, which obviously have distinct flags as well, other than that most SSRs correspond to currently independent states? SiBr4 (talk ) 15:58, 12 October 2015 (UTC)
 * If a US state (or Canadian province, or German Länder...) one day became independent, wouldn't the entry for the new nation's flag timeline show previous flags associated with that political entity, including past state or provincial flags? The SSR flags are part of the heritage of the 15 former Soviet republics. In some cases, they've directly influenced the current national flag (e.g. Belarus and Tajikistan). The same applies to the former Yugoslav republics that are now independent states. If the article is meant to capture the history of a nation's flags, I don't see the harm if the timeline included pre-independence flags. But I'll leave it to others to make the call. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs) 03:16, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
 * "If the article is meant to capture the history of a nation's flags (...)" I hadn't interpreted the article's subject that way. The title implies that each year should only list then-national flags (i.e. flags of entities that were "nations" in that year, duplicated for each current state that was part of it), as opposed to historical flags associated with current states (regardless of former status). The lead seems to support the latter, however. I don't have a strong preference for either, as long as the article's scope is clear and consistently applied. If possible we could also display national and regional flags together, showing both that a current country was a part (or colony) of another state and that it had its own flag.
 * Relatedly, the article currently doesn't distinguish between national flags, flags of regions within larger states, and flags of larger states themselves. I think some text needs to be added to each cell that gives the name of the entity in question and clarifies what exactly the displayed flag represented, either displayed or as image mouseover. Links to the former entities' articles would also be helpful. SiBr4 (talk ) 17:34, 14 October 2015 (UTC)
 * I like the suggestions for clarifying the article; unfortunately I don't have the skills to make anything other than minor changes. In the meantime, would you object if I added back the flags of the Kirgiz and Kazakh SSRs? If for no other reason, their timelines would be consistent with other Soviet (and Yugoslav) republic timelines. If you disagree, no problem. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs) 19:51, 18 October 2015 (UTC)
 * There is now a /Draft subpage for trying out any proposed changes. After trying I imagined a description in every cell would get rather busy, so the current version includes text for non-independent entities and larger states (for the first few countries at least). The years link to relevant articles.
 * I have no problem with reinstating the SSR flags in the real article. SiBr4 (talk ) 19:49, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
 * Looks good - hyperlinking the year to the relevant article is a great idea. I imagine redoing the entire article would take a fair amount of time though. I'll add the SSR flags back, and a few additional colonial flags for Caribbean nations. snd3054 19:14, 24 October 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Snd3054 (talk • contribs)

Overseas Territories
Shouldn't overseas territories be included somewhere in this list?. It would be valuable information to see the change is these territories also regardless of their status. The timeline of territories such as Bermuda, Puerto rico, Virgin islands (US and UK), Guam, Pitcairn Island, Cayman islands and so on.. There are many and all have flag timelines. If anyone can gather the information. Thank you. Puertorico1 (talk)

Partially recognized states
Delete Kosovo ,Republic of China and SADR or add Abkhazia, South Ossetia and North Cyprus (maybe also Azad Kashmir - Pakistan officially recognizes it as an independent state). They have equal status as partially recognized states. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 195.128.56.222 (talk) 10:34, 29 December 2016 (UTC)

Edit request.
Afghanistan changed its flag in 2013.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Afghanistan#/media/File:Flag_of_Afghanistan_(2004-2013).svg

This is the 2004-2013 version.

A bit of an update, please? 8.40.151.110 (talk) 01:14, 10 April 2017 (UTC)

kosvo
Timeline of "Kosovo" should look like this: 2008-
 * No it should not, as many other nations, Kosovo had another status before it's independence (like autonomous province of Serbia etc.) --MateoKatanaCRO (talk) 16:30, 9 April 2018 (UTC)

Edit request: Mauritania.
Flag changed yesterday. 8.40.151.110 (talk) 18:43, 7 August 2017 (UTC)
 * And I just did it. 8.40.151.110 (talk) 23:46, 8 August 2017 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 03:36, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Flag of Thailand (2011–2017).svg

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 14:36, 11 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Royal Korean Consulate flag in Hamburg 1893.gif

Flag of Germany
The partition was ended in 1990 yet. Despite the field of the flag of the GDR goes to 1996. 2003:E0:4728:1D00:8057:725D:BC20:ACFB (talk) 15:15, 5 October 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 11:08, 22 March 2020 (UTC)
 * Flag of the First and Second Saudi State.svg

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 05:09, 26 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Royal Flag of Vietnam (1802–1885).svg

Palestine
Can someone please add Palestine? It is recognized by 138 countries (Kosovo, for instance, is recognized by 98 countries and is included on this list). Thanks. — Preceding unsigned comment added by NoWikiNoLife (talk • contribs) 08:27, 27 September 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 02:55, 28 September 2020 (UTC)
 * Tunisian flag till 1831.svg

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:34, 21 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Flag of Lithuania (Soviet shade).svg

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 08:42, 28 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Flag of Cuba (1902–1959).svg

Proposals
Hello. Someone has added proposals that were made in the past for the flags as if they were the actual flags of the states, such as adding some of the flag proposals of the New Zealand flag referendum, or the Fiji flag referendum. I propose all of these added proposals be removed as they can misinform potential readers. Germenfer (talk) 16:34, 6 May 2021 (UTC) I checked and from the proposals, they were ither unofficial, or if they were indeed part of flag-change referendums they were voted out or the flag change did not occur at all. For example, in the Fiji referendum in 2016, the Prime Minister eventually decided not to change the flag. In the New Zealand referendums, the people decided not to change their flag to the newly proposed one, etc. I believe that the proposals must be removed. Germenfer (talk) 14:21, 12 May 2021 (UTC) I agree. I believe that we should create a separate article maybe titled "National Flag Proposals" or "List of National Flag Proposals" (started it in my sandbox) where the proposals to change the flag of certain nations are classified by nation and date. Germenfer (talk) 14:21, 12 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Support It's not at all clear that they were just proposals. Makes it look like the countries adopted the flags for a year then reverted back. Del U sion23 (talk)  18:50, 6 May 2021 (UTC)
 * Support I am not sure if we need a separate article for those proposed flags but that will be nice if that article exists. SpinnerLaserzthe2nd (talk) 01:02, 7 May 2021 (UTC)

The separate article has been created: "List of National Flag Proposals". I suggest the proposals are now removed from the timeline. Germenfer (talk) 16:03, 6 June 2021 (UTC)
 * It seems no matter how much we try removing the proposals, there is one unregistered individual heavily guarding this page and reverting any change made to remove proposed unofficial flags. That's not even mentioning their strange emotional reactions to any revision. There are far too many unofficial flags added to this article. I've tried directing them to the talk page to prevent this turning into a pointless edit war, but they've ignored that. I would personally advise protecting this page for the time being. 147.147.150.33 (talk) 20:30, 7 July 2021 (UTC)
 * New Zealand silver fern, and Iraq 2007 proposal flag also exists
 * Yes, they exist, but they're not official flags that were used by the country. The purpose of this page is to timeline the history of the national flags. New Zealand never made the Silver Fern flags their official flags during the referendum campaign, nor did Iraq make those proposals their official flags. These are more appropriate for the list of national flag proposals article. As well as this, the 51 star flag has been added here repeatedly with the idea that it will be made the flag of the U.S. in the future. Not only is it an unofficial flag (literally, the work of an artist on Wikipedia) but even if it was an official U.S. government approved flag, merely adding it goes against WP:CRYSTALBALL. 147.147.150.33 (talk) 12:06, 9 July 2021 (UTC)

Support. These should be removed from the tables. Urgently. → «« Man77 »» 16:31, 7 August 2021 (UTC)

Proposal
see List of national flag proposals.

Semi-protected edit request on 31 July 2021
Decades / countries 80.234.77.44 (talk) 07:57, 31 July 2021 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. ScottishFinnishRadish (talk) 11:54, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Proposal flags
Please please quit adding proposal flags, proposal flags are not historical flags. ColorfulSmoke (talk) 12:45, 31 July 2021 (UTC)

Flags of England 519 and 927
I can't find any evidence that either of the flags listed for the United kingdom (English row) for the dates 519 and 927 should be used. Flag of England doesn't list either and List of English flags only says that the wyvern flag was registered by the flag institute in 1972.

In fact the Wessex article under Symbols specifically says "Dragon standards were in fairly wide use in Europe at the time, being derived from the draco standard employed by the later Roman army and there is no evidence that it explicitly identified Wessex" and suggests that the assosiation with a dragon was only popularised in the victorian period. Either way, the specific shown here was designed in the 1970s by William Crampton.

As for the white dragon flag, presumably meant to represent the Anglo-Saxons per the legend of the White dragon, is only used in this article on the whole of English Wikipedia and the implies that this is an original creation by the uploader User:Thomas Gun based on the legend and therefore unlikely to have been used in 927.

Is there any reason why these two anachronistic flags shouldn't be removed. Cakelot1 (talk) 23:53, 21 September 2021 (UTC)


 * I have mow removed the anachronistic as well as the banners of arms used to represent England because such things aren't done for other counties (banner of arms not used for Scotland, Norway, France's pre-1643 banners etc.) Cakelot1 (talk) 11:00, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

Anachronistic and proposed flags
This page has become filled with flags that could in no way be called national flags. From imagined flags such as those that I talked about for England in the above section or using the "flag of the Mongols" to adding a proposed flags that were never used to even non flag elements such as the Vergina Sun being used for the Macedonian empire.

Evan when it's arguable that a flag might be used the dates are also all over the place, more often reparenting when a state was founded such as having the Tetragrammatic cross for Greece with 330 listed under it even though this banner is from the 14th century. This random dating seems a form of WP:OR to me.

Even today people are still adding highly anachronistic flags to the article such as from User:MCS2006TAA who added "Roman flags" (A modern reedition of Vexillum and the anachronistic byzantine flag) for the Vatican city. I think we need to make it clear exactly what we mean by flag so that we can better preserve any good content. Cakelot1 (talk) 21:47, 3 October 2021 (UTC)

Adding flags en mass
Hey user:GAROSENTAIJINOHGERRV7, Before you re-add these extremely incorrect and anachronistic flags en mass again could you please explain why you are adding things like which is not a flag or  which is a flag of the modern Wessex movement, or, which is marked as "fictitious" on commons? These problems and more is why the cleanup template is there (which you also removed without discussion). Cakelot1 (talk) 15:52, 15 November 2021 (UTC)

The images are too small
Please make them bigger 2600:1011:B01C:6946:2895:D742:D223:82B3 (talk) 23:55, 27 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Unfortunately this article's formatting is extremely bad in general, and the table is already far to big and difficult to navigate as it is with out making the flags bigger. If you want to see a specific flag bigger you can always click on it to see it's file page. Cakelot1 (talk) 09:49, 28 November 2021 (UTC)

'alternative'is the correct word. Alternate has a totally different meaning
²⁰ 222.154.2.14 (talk) 19:33, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

Japan
Isn't the rising sun flag a national flag? Idonteattape (talk) 19:09, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

Problematic page to load on mobile devices
This page is very hard to load on mobile devices, probably because lots of images are loading at once. This page often crashes on mobile or just freezes. I have a suggestion. Try to make categories, to avoid loading big amout of images at once. I would appreciate that. -Simon 95.103.195.112 (talk) 18:11, 18 June 2022 (UTC)

Move Taiwan
Taiwan should be moved to “States with limited recognition”: very few nations recognize it. Kosovo, despite being recognized by over 90 countries, is declared to have “limited recognition”, yet Taiwan isn’t, despite being far less recognized. Tankpiggy18 (talk) 04:44, 18 August 2022 (UTC)

Rising sun?
where is the rising sun flag 1868-1945 for japan? 92.81.57.209 (talk) 11:01, 24 August 2022 (UTC)


 * The Rising sun flag was (and still is) a military and naval flag. Since this is a timeline of national flags we show the flag that japan has been using since ancient times and has never changed from. (see Flag of Japan for more details) Cakelot1 (talk) 11:45, 24 August 2022 (UTC)

Splitting this article into several smaller ones
Having all of the countries of the world in the same table makes it really annoying to navigate, and as mentioned above it's a hassle to load in mobile, so I reckon that we should split this article into one timeline for each continent and one for unrecognized nations as well. Nigu GD (talk) 16:33, 20 February 2023 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 11:09, 21 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Flag of Abkhazia (18th century).svg

Question
Is this the longest page on Wikipedia? 109.70.214.139 (talk) 12:00, 2 March 2023 (UTC)


 * Not even in the top 500 Cakelot1 (talk) 17:19, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

@ 109.37.159.150 (talk) 14:48, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

This page needs a total revision
Let's be honest. If we have to be faithful to the purpose of offering a national flag timeline, a good half of entries should either be canceled or marked with explicative notes.

I see strict military flags with no national usage (yes, because "national" rarely is an official status), pre-state entities, debatable dates (Vatican flag in VIII century?), constituent or occupation countries together with colonial entities or dynasties. If I were totally obscure about vexillology I would end be misinformed and confused.

If we want to keep it encyclopedical, we need to rethink this page, other than fact check each entry (which is a more general problem). We should establish, again, which political entity choose to feature ("Byzantium" for Greece? Secessionists and occupation/colonial entities? Do dynastic and personal dominions count?) and whose flag consider "national".

I would sandbox a draft if needed, I don't want to edit-bomb this page. TheFlagandAnthemGuy (talk) 10:10, 13 April 2023 (UTC)


 * You'll get no pushback from me. If you look through the history you'll see it has been, but the more I've seen of how difficult it is to manage, the massive unruly size of the table and the lack of sources, the more I think it should be deleted as a whole. I don't think it meets WP:NLIST, etc. I've tried to add some sources (to the UK, china and Albania) but it seems near impossible task. As somebody said above it might be an idea to split the article into sub-articles (by continents?), if we are keeping it. I would support a complete rewrite and I don't think it matters if you do it in a draft or the main article (seeing how neglected the article currently is). Good luck. Cakelot1 (talk) 10:51, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
 * Well, being a newbie here, I prefer giving suggestion before engaging in so massive rewrite work.
 * I will start first a draft, then we will see if it's practical this continental split TheFlagandAnthemGuy (talk) 12:50, 22 April 2023 (UTC)

Request for edit: Azerbaijan
As seen on the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Azerbaijan#Timeline_gallery) there are quite a few versions missing in this overview, especially changes 2004-13, 2013-19. 2019-present.

Request for edit: Curacao Aruba and Bonaire
The flag of the Batavian republic is just a naval flag. The actual flag is just the Statenvlag https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_national_flags   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_the_Netherlands

add this flag pretty please
File:India flag 1947.png2000

This was used until 2023. When the 1947 one revived. Ghursta (talk) 10:46, 31 May 2024 (UTC)