What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
The national flag as an iconic flag of the country, is the symbol of the country, it reflects the characteristics of a country and historical and cultural traditions through a certain style, color, the pattern of the national flag, but also need to be as simple and convenient as possible, while giving people a deep impression. The original flag was born in Europe and subsequently spread around the world.
At present, there is no country in the world that uses a pure color national flag, and the white flag is regarded as a sign of surrender, in ancient times, ancient Rome and the Spring and Autumn Warring States of China used the white flag as a communication signal between the warring sides. The white flag also gave the concept of a truce and negotiations, which over time was eventually widely recognized as a sign of surrender.
Interestingly, however, there has been a country in history that has used the white flag as its flag, and this country is now one of the five permanent members of the United Nations, which is France. Some people once joked that the Flag of France during World War II was a white flag, all due to France's astonishing performance at the time and the surrender at the speed of light, which made the world anti-fascist movement more difficult, but this joke does have some basis. Let's take a look at the history of the French flag.
France is one of the first countries in Europe to have a national flag, originally people did not have the concept of a national flag, but under the rule of Louis XIV, the most concentrated absolute monarch in France, the Bourbon dynasty's blue-ground golden iris pattern has gradually become the symbol of France, and Louis XIV himself has also said a famous sentence: "Decay is the state." ”
Later, the French royal family began to use white as its symbol, symbolizing purity, and when the king went out on tour, the guards of the army would hold a white flag in front of the king to represent the majesty of the royal family, or hold a holy spirit medal to symbolize the sacred.
Because the French troops were royal troops, the French army also began to use the white flag as a symbol of military command. Later, the white flag became the symbol of the French Navy, and the French government issued an order prohibiting commercial and private ships from flying the white flag. During the American Revolutionary War, the French army carried out support operations under the white flag.
But decades later, during the French Revolution in 1789, the Paris National Guard designed the tricolor flag that we are now widely known as, the white flag in the past was centered on white, representing the king of France, symbolizing its sacred status, red and blue were arranged on both sides to represent the citizens of Paris; by 1794, the tricolor flag was determined to be the flag of the First French Republic.
However, in 1813, after the defeat of Napoleon, the First French Empire collapsed, and the Bourbon Dynasty was restored, changing the flag to the Iris Flag, which is the pattern we see below.
However, the flag was so complex that it was difficult to depict, so most French people used the white flag (drapeau blanc) as their national flag, and the Bourbons also acquiesced to this, and the French national signal flag was officially changed to a pure white flag
Although Napoleon, who later came to power again, cancelled the white flag of the Bourbon dynasty, its history as a flag lasted until the July Revolution of 1830, which was abolished after a hundred years of use, so France became the only country that used the white flag as the national flag.
Later French flags were also quite varied, but basically blue, white and red as a background, and during World War II, after the surrender of France, its leader Philippe Pétain used the tricolor flag with the symbols fascist sticks and Venus as the representative flag of the regime (but the French flag was still a tricolor).
In response, the exiled General de Gaulle, led by free France, openly announced that a red Lorraine cross had been added to the tricolor flag as the symbol of free France. But after the end of World War II, these signs were also missing, and the French flag was once again restored to the original tricolor flag, which became the pattern we see today.