The ultimate symbol of liberté, egalité and fraternité

Design

Article 2 of the French constitution of 1958 states that "the national emblem is the tricolour flag, blue, white, red". In modern representations, two versions are in use, one darker and the other lighter: both are used equally, but the light version (i.e. the main version used by Wikipedia) is far more common on digital displays. The light version was introduced in 1976 by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing for use in televised governmental speeches. It is sometimes even used on official State buildings. Town halls, public buildings and barracks, on the other hand, are adorned with the darker version of the flag.

Currently, the flag is one and a half times wider than its height (i.e. in the proportion 2:3) and, except in the French Navy, has stripes of equal width. Initially, the three stripes of the flag were not equally wide, being in the proportions 30 (blue), 33 (white) and 37 (red). Under Napoleon I, the proportions were changed to make the stripes' width equal, but by a regulation dated 17 May 1853, the navy went back to using the 30:33:37 proportions, which it now continues to use, as the flapping of the flag makes portions farther from the halyard seem smaller.

History

Under the ancien régime, France had a great number of flags, and many of its military and naval flags were elaborate and subject to artistic variations. The royal coat of arms, a blue shield with three golden fleurs-de-lis, was the basis for the state flag. After the Bourbons came to power, that shield was generally displayed against a background of the Bourbon dynastic colour, white. In the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789 the emphasis was refocused to simple flag designs that expressed the radical changes being introduced into France’s social, political, and economic life. Blue and red, the traditional colours of Paris, were popular among revolutionaries in that city, and the Bourbon royal white was often added. The revolutionaries were also influenced by the horizontally striped red-white-blue flag of the Netherlands, which had appeared in the mid-17^th century. In 1790 three equal vertical stripes, arranged red-white-blue within a frame of the same colours, were added to the white flag of the navy. Four years later the Tricolore, with stripes now ordered blue-white-red, was made the official national flag for use by the common people, the army, and the navy. This flag was seen to embody all the principles of the Revolution—liberty, equality, fraternity, democracy, secularism, and modernisation. Many other countries—especially in Europe but also among the former French colonial possessions in western Africa—adopted tricoloured flags in imitation of the French, replacing its colours with their own. In that way the French Tricolore became one of the most-influential national flags in history, standing in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past as well as to the totalitarian banners of modern communism and fascism. After the military victories of Napoleon I under the Tricolore, the Bourbon Restoration in 1814/15 led to the replacement of all symbols. The white flag was again supreme, but the revolution of 1830, which put Louis-Philippe on the throne, restored the Tricolore. In 1848 many sought to impose a communist red banner on France, and for two weeks the Tricolore itself was altered, its stripes reordered to blue-red-white. Since March 5, 1848, however, the Tricolore has been the sole national flag of France and of all territories under its control. Like many early national flags, the Tricolore has no specific symbolism attached to the individual colours and shapes in its design.

Historical fleurs-de-lis flag of France.