Why is the italian flag green white and red
Italy | Flag History
in the 19th century when Italy unified
they adopted a green white and red
trickler too faced with the cross of
Savoy as their national flag and
explained the cross in a little bit but
for now you'll see the surrounded by a
blue border Savoy which led the
unification movement first used blue
during the Savoy yard crusade of 1366
this crusade was called in honor of the
Virgin Mary who is often displayed
wearing blue and as such the Crusaders
from Savoy were awarded a blue flag from
there it was used in uniforms and sashes
until it eventually found it's wearing
the national flag and became the royal
house color so in the early days of
organized sports Italy adopted blue for
their strips but the whole cross was
eventually dropped from the flag when
Italy became a republic after World War
Two but under the tricolor Savoy adopted
the trickler as its national flag after
the revolutions of 1848 which is largely
called for the unification of Italy
although they weren't the only ones for
instance Tuscany Naples and Sicily did
the same but they revert back to their
old flags once their revolutions failed
the revolutionaries notably in Milan
picked the codes which hearkened back to
the old Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy
which had temporarily United a great
deal of Italy but from this painting in
1845 few years before the Revolution you
can see the colours flying in Austrian
control Venice so they obviously
remained somewhat important throughout
the decades in between the Kingdom of
Italy emerged from uniting various
states notably the French puppet state
the kiss Alpine Republic which in turn
emerge from the kiss padania Republic
and it was the kiss burden a republic
that first adopted the colours in 1797
displayed horizontally then the kiss
Alpine Republic changed it to vertical
stripes however before getting on to the
theories behind the colours I think
there are a couple things that need to
be established so over the centuries
Italy thought hundreds of states and
even more flags and getting into all of
them would take a wee bit too long but
there are some important themes and
symbols that have continued over the
centuries first of all a city or state
is often represented by two colors some
of these color choices are quite well
understood
for instance the yellow and red of the
flags and sir the Nestle like Naples
Messier in Sicily originated from a time
when the Spanish had influence in the
region Rome also uses a similar fight
but this hearkened back to the colours
of the Roman Empire in the northwest
many states and cities are represented
by the cross of st. George red on white
or its reverse the cross of st. George
was first adopted by the Genoese
Crusades had spread throughout Europe
from there Genoa bologna and Milan all
share the same flag and have remarkably
similar flags to Sardinia Savoy Mantua
Asti etc so these cities was often used
red and white in one form or another
however despite several theories the
choice of some color patterns are
surrounded mystery for instance the
black and white of CNN Ferrara or the
red and white of Florence and its
neighbors pazar and Lucca plus in the
northwest blue and yellow was used in
the flags of Venice Parma Verona and the
likes however no one definitely knows
why so there's always the possibility
that they were chosen merely to
differentiate from one another and this
might be important when explaining the
trickler these crosses and colours have
largely remained in use for centuries
despite conquest revolutions in the
introductions of new flags for instance
Naples changed hands from Flags numerous
times but the red and yellow remained
throughout plus there are other
important symbols for each city in
region Florence used the red
fleur-de-lis which may have originated
from the Exile in France during the war
between the girls and the gibbelins in
the 13th century
Venice's most famous symbol is the
winged line which represents a mark this
comes from ancient time from the four
evangelists were represented by the
animals which pulled the chariot of God
in the Bible so mark was the winged lion
Matthew was the angel Luke was the bull
and John was the eagle and finally
mallanna's alone for the vichy oniy a
Great Serpent devourer in a Saracen
which was the symbol of the Visconti
family and on the subject Saracens and
Moors featured on a couple Italian flags
notably Sardinia and Corsica but the
origins of this are long and disputed
but once again these symbols would often
be used alongside the crosses and the by
colored flags the other thing I should
explain as in the 18th century people
often showed their allegiances by
wearing cockades in the place of
uniforms whereas in the early days
cockades tended to be one or two colours
for instance the Jacobite white of the
American Revolutionary white and black
the French revolutionaries adopted the
red white and blue making the tricolour
cockade the sign of republicanism so
when the French Republic invaded a
nation their supporters would more often
than not wear a trickler cockade of one
design or another whereas some of these
colors have quite credible theories
behind them others do not
for instance in Switzerland the Helvetic
Republic used green red and yellow a
the green represented liberty yellow the
color of brewery and red the color of
Swiss green was in fact never used by
the French revolutionaries on their
cockades because of its connections with
Liberty so green representing Liberty
was a pretty commonly held belief at the
time but this could well be an
explanation created afterwards as most
of the New Republic shared at least two
colors with the French in one unique
color to distinguish it however saying
that there was some overlap for instance
in Germany the kiss reigning Republic
also used green white and red but under
Isley there was the short-lived Republic
of Alba in the north they used red blue
in an orange yellow now I'm just
speculating here but the orange yellow
may have come from the flag of Turin the
capital city of Savoy or sometimes very
rarely the colour was used as a border
to the flag of Savoy in central Italy
the young corner Republic used a very
similar red yellow and blue this could
have come from merging the flag of
ancona which used a Greek crust to shows
all connections with Greece with that of
France however this Republic was
eventually absorbed into the Roman
Republic which used red white and black
or depending on the source red white and
gray
however given Rome has a long history of
using red and yellow the colors of the
old Empire the only thing I can find
linking the city to black is it was the
color of the she-wolf which raised
Romulus and Remus but that seems like a
bit of a stretch Plus and southern Italy
the path Enochian Republic also used
blue yellow and red but this could come
from merging the cause of Naples and
France however when Napoleon reconquered
Naples the new flag was changed to red
black and whites this may have
symbolized a connection with the former
Roman Republic and showed signs of
unifying but once again nobody really
knows why so finally on the green white
and red of the kispa downing republic
keeping in mind that many of the new
republic used two french colors with one
of their own sometimes with no real
explanation this color scheme could just
be a way to differentiate themselves
from the french so because these colors
were chosen pretty quickly after the
French invaded very little thought may
have went into choosing the colors and
had an alternative history taken course
I could well be analyzing the trickle of
thang own Ian or Alba Republic but given
that the kiss Banana Republic eventually
spread out and formed the Kingdom of
Italy and it's red white and green were
used on the new flag there are numerous
and conflicting theories behind the
choice of colors one of the most often
cited says that white and red represents
the flag of Milan and the green came
from the Civic garbs uniforms in October
1796 the polian created the Lombard
Legion and in his own words to the
executive directory the national colors
they have adopted are green white and
red so the troops who fought for
Napoleon the Lombard Legion were
presented with these colors on a flag
and their uniforms displayed them
however there is some evidence to
suggest that the colors were not used to
represent the flag Milan but rather that
of Bologna and Asti in 1794 a couple
years before Napoleon ever entered Italy
to revolutionary samboni and D ro Landis
who were from Bologna and Asti led a
revolution against the papal States the
United the red and white of Milan year
with the color of hope green and
produced cockades for their supporters
however what remains disputed is whether
or not their revolutionary colors spread
to Milan or did the people of Milan
decide on their color schemes separately
in my opinion and I could be wrong but
it seems that the people of Milan just
chose green white red the reason for
this is that within the papal States two
different state flags had been used with
two different color schemes that in
Roman ancona so it seems unlikely that
the green white and red have become
important in Milan a different state but
not within the papal States itself so in
short the true origins of the Italian
flag have been lost in the turbulent
years of the French Revolutionary Wars
but really the history of the regular
pales in comparison the city and
regional flags of Italy which in my eyes
are some of the greatest in the world
although I've mentioned a lot of them
already I'll end this video by bringing
your attention to a few more there's the
peas and cross which the Pope granted to
the city in the early 11th century when
they form the Saracens there's the balls
of the Medici in Florence which may
represent Byzantine a pawnbrokers coins
or pharmaceutical pills alluding to the
origins and medicine and finally the
strange flag of Sicily which has a head
of Medusa in front of three legs
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