Why is the mexican flag important
Fun With Flags #11 - Mexico Flag
hey guys welcome to another video you
can tell by the title dad we're back to
flags today more specifically be Mexico
flag as usual we're going to be taking a
look at the history and the meaning of
the flag so first let's take a look at
Mexico's flag today a tricolor vertical
striped flag green white and red with an
eagle in its center before we talk about
the meaning of the colors and a symbol
let's travel back a few hundred years
and look at how the Mexican flag has
evolved throughout time before the
Spanish arrived and colonized the
territory the region of Mexico was
populated by natives the most well-known
would be the Aztecs but there were also
other tribes like the Mayans the zapotec
people or the yaki amongst many others
these people had their own symbols but
from what I could understand the use of
the flag as a symbol of identification
wasn't very common so we're going to use
the arrival of the Spanish and their
colonization of the Mexican territory as
our starting point for this video the
Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire
followed by the rest of Central America
and Mexico started in 1519 so from this
point onwards until the independence of
Mexico we can say that the official flag
flying over the Mexican territories was
the Spanish flag with a couple of
exceptions that we're going to look at
following the end of the conquest of the
Aztecs there were two flags flown
alongside the Spanish flag in Mexico
the flag of Hernan Cortes a red flag
with the image of the Virgin Mary and
the cavalry standard a swallow-tailed
red flag with a dove representing the
holy spirit so these two really
represent the Catholic influence that
the Spanish brought over to the new
world even though what they did to
conquered the territories wasn't exactly
very Catholic they tended to be quite
violent and massacred several thousands
of natives
the Spanish flag changed through our
time and had some evolutions if you want
to understand those check out my video
on a Spanish flag but what's important
for Mexico is the change which occurred
in 1810 in 1810 the New Spain
independence war began also known as the
mexican independence war it partially
coincides with the Napoleon invasion of
Spain in 1808 and it might have been one
of the causes the weakening of the
central region of the Empire in Spain
allowed for the fight for independence
of the colonies until 1815 with the war
waging on there was not an official
proposal for a flag instead each armed
group flew its own standard flag or
emblem one of the first independence
movement emblems was a banner of the
Virgin of Guadalupe interesting how
Cortes is flagged for colonization and
the independence movements flag had this
common symbol the Virgin Mary there were
also several other flags and banners in
use during the war in 1815 the first
official flag was proposed and confirmed
having three varieties the war flag the
flag of truce and the merchant flag the
war flag consisted of a mix of light
blue and white squares with the Mexican
symbol in its centre a more elaborate
version of the symbol in today's flag
the flag of troops was white with a
light blue border with a sword an olive
branch to symbolize peace and a laurel
crown the merchant flag was a flag of
Commerce a white cross on a field of
light blue the switch to the red white
and green colors only happened next this
flag was not a national flag but it
could be seen as the origin of this
color scheme it is the flag of the army
of the three guarantees which you could
say was the first official Mexican army
very important to the fight against the
Spanish and a consolidation of
Independence the three guarantees were
keeping the Roman Catholic Church
achieving independence under a liberal
monarchy and the equality between
Europeans and Americans fighting
alongside each other
for Mexican Independence so the first
meaning of the colors was the white
representing Catholic faith the green
representing independence and the red
representing the union between Europeans
and Americans the first official
national flag of Mexico to use these
colors was the flag of 1822 the flag of
Imperial Mexico despite having the full
symbol in its coat of arms the symbol on
the flag was merely a crowned eagle next
we have the Republican flag used on and
off through the 1800s
the only change was the removal of the
crown and the addition of the stone lake
and laurel for a short period in 1863 in
64 the state used the imperial court of
arms as its main symbol instead of the
flag because of the war between
Republicans and monarchists from 1864 to
67 the Imperial standard and the
Imperial flag took a more European style
in the coat of arms a color of the
Mexican Eagle Grand order and a scroll
with the words equity injustice was
added to the flag in 1867 Mexico
officially became a republic and all
imperial symbols were abolished the
Republican flag had a lot of changes but
it essentially stayed the same these
changes were merely the way that the
Eagle was shown on the flag so we arrive
at today's flag in use officially since
1968 the colors remain the same but
their meaning has slightly changed the
Green is now said to represent hope the
white represents purity and red
represents the blood of the heroes who
fought for independence very similar
meanings to the ones of the colors in
the Portuguese flag the central symbol
with the Eagle is based on the Aztec
symbol for an I'm gonna mispronounce
this Tanakh titling now Mexico City
according to legend the gods had advised
the Aztecs that the place where they
should settle would be identified when
he saw an eagle on a cactus pear tree
killing a serpent it is said that they
saw this eagle on top of a lake
on top of the tree now one of the
central squares in Mexico City so that
is the meaning and history of the
Mexican flag up to today's version of
the green white and red with an eagle in
its center sitting on a pear cactus tree
on top of a lake killing a serpent the
act of the ego killing the serpent could
mean the triumph of good over evil while
for Catholics also being a reference
that a serpent of the Garden of Eden
there's always a similarity with the
Italian flag but I found an animation
that shows the difference between the
two the shade of the colors the
dimensions and the symbol in the center
of the flag
so that is it the Mexican flag thank you
guys so much for watching remember to
leave a comment with your thoughts and
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again thanks for watching and I'll see
you on the next video
