German East Africa (1884-1916)
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Rwanda and Burundi were occupied by Germany and merged with a number of countries in the Great Lakes region. The area was connected to much of German East Africa, but was rarely garrisoned by German troops.
Belgian Rwanda-Burundi (1916-1959)
In 1916, during World War I, the area was occupied by Belgian Congolese troops. Subsequently, the Treaty of Versailles divided German East Africa into two parts: the larger part of Tanganyika was taken over by the British; The smaller westernmost part, present-day Rwanda and Burundi, was taken over by Belgium.
In 1924, the League of Nations officially authorized Belgium to take over the two areas, calling them Rwanda-Udlondi. However, Belgium did not fully comply with the League of Nations provisions on second-class trust territories, but placed them directly under the jurisdiction of the Belgian Congo until the Democratic Republic of the Congo gained independence in 1960 (the de facto jurisdiction of the area had not changed before and after the reauthorization of the United Nations in 1945).
Kingdom of Rwanda (1959-1961)
In 1959, Rwanda declared its independence and established the Kingdom of Rwanda, with Tutsi as king.
Republic of Rwanda (1961-1962)
In 1962, the Hutu overthrew the king, abolished the monarchy and established the Republic of Rwanda.
Republic of Rwanda (1962-2001)
Red symbolizes the blood of martyrs, yellow symbolizes the victory of the revolution, green symbolizes hope, and R is the first letter of the country's name. Rwanda changed its flag in 2001 because the red color on the flag reminded Rwandans of the bloodshed during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Republic of Rwanda (2001-present)
After independence, Rwanda was rife with conflicts between Hutu and Tutsi. Within a few years, hundreds of thousands of Tutsis had fled to neighboring countries. Many of the Tutsi in exile in Uganda formed the Rwandan Patriotic Front. On 1 October 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front invaded Rwanda from its Ugandan base. In response, the then junta of Juvenar Habyarimana claimed that the Tutsis were attempting to enslave the Hutu again and had adopted a genocidal policy against the Tutsis. The war lasted two years. On 6 April 1994, a plane crashed over the capital, Kigali, killing all its occupants, including President Habyarimana and neighbouring Burundian President Siprian Ntariyamila. Over the next two months, the army and military groups killed nearly 800,000 Tutsi and Hutu civilians in genocide. The RPF invaded again and occupied northern Rwanda in July.
In October, the Rwandan Patriotic Front announced a ceasefire that came to an end, in which the United Nations and Western countries reacted almost into, allowing massacres by the Hutu junta, militias and militants. After the incident, fearing reprisals from the Tutsis, 2 million Hutu fled to neighboring Congo and Tanzania.
The new flag contains blue, which represents that people must fight for peace in order to continue economic growth and bring happiness; yellow, which means that the people must live and work in peace to promote permanent economic development; Green symbolizes the hope of prosperity through the rational development of the people, and also symbolizes the country's resources. The sun symbol in the upper right, guiding the people of the whole country with 24 rays of light, also represents unity, innocence and transparency, and the struggle against ignorance.