Flag of Uruguay

Flag of Uruguay
Vexillological symbol :	?
Aspect ratio:	2: 3
Officially accepted:	July 11, 1830

The flag of Uruguay dates from the time when the Banda Oriental del Uruguay (the eastern bank of Uruguay ) was separated from the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata ( Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata from which Argentina later emerged): the flag was sky blue and white with a golden sun - symbols that are also part of the flag of Argentina .

Description and meaning

Uruguay waving flag

Flags of freedom fighters next to the national flag

In the upper leech stands the Argentine Sol de Mayo (maisonne, also called Inca sun), the sun of freedom. However, the Uruguayan sun has only 16 rays compared to the 32 rays of the Argentine sun. The sun has a diameter of 11/15 of the white field. The edge length of the white field is as large as the first five stripes. The total of nine stripes (five white and four blue) represent the nine original departments.

history

José Gervasio Artigas , the leader of Uruguay in the struggle for independence, and later freedom fighters, the so-called Treinta y Tres (33 fighters from the Banda Oriental), carried, among other variants, blue-white-blue flags with a red sloping bar (from top left to bottom right) or red-white-blue with the inscription Libertad o Muerte (freedom or death).

After the country gained independence in 1828, Parliament decided on December 16 to adopt a new flag with nine sky-blue stripes. It is not exactly known whether a variant with a sun has already been hoisted in the Obereck. This was influenced in the colors of the flag of Argentina and the stripe flag of the USA . The stripes represented the nine departments of Uruguay at the time of independence. But the large number of stripes (19) soon became a problem, so that on July 11, 1830 it was modified to the current version. A law of December 16, 1830 finally established this as the national flag . Between 1839 and 1851 a decision was made for a short time to swap the blue and white stripes so that the top and bottom of the flag could be finished with one color. The flag thus consisted of five blue and four white stripes. From 1843 the sun was even moved to the center of the flag. Only on October 8, 1851 was the constitutional version of July 11, 1830 still valid today.

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  ^? Flag of José Gervasio Artigas ( Patria vieja ): the blue of Artigas is darker than that of the Argentine flag to differentiate it from Argentina.

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  ^? Flag of the 33 fighters from the Banda Oriental with the inscription "Liberty or Death", 1825

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  ^? Flag from 1828

Other flags of Uruguay

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  Gösch

literature

• Karl-Heinz Hesmer: flags, coats of arms, dates. The countries of the world from A - Z . Bertelsmann-Lexikon-Verlag, Gütersloh et al. 1975, ISBN 3-570-01591-2 .
• Whitney Smith , Ottfried Neubecker : The signs of people and peoples. Our world in flags and banners . Reich Verlag, Lucerne 1975, ISBN 3-7243-0115-4 .

Web links

Commons : Flags of Uruguay  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Flags of the World - Uruguay (English)
• The flag of the Banda Oriental