Exploring the similarities in flags of Central American countries

Central American flags. Across the world there are various groups of countries that have similar flags. We've already covered Arab and the Middle Eastern flags as well as Slavic ones. In this video we're traveling to another region of the world, Central America. Central America is historically composed of seven countries. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, and Belize. Each of these countries has a flag, of course, and various common elements between them, namely the colors. Four of these nations predominantly use blue and white on their flags. The other three also use blue and white, but add red as a main color. So, why? In this video, we're going to go through each of these Central American countries' flags and learn when they were implemented and how they connect to each other. But before that, I believe we need to start with what is arguably their common origin, at least for most of the seven, the Federal Republic of Central America. The Federal Republic of Central America, briefly also known as the United Provinces of Central America, was a sovereign state south of Mexico which existed from 1823 to 1841. At its peak, it included the countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, as well as parts of Belize and reaching into the southernmost provinces of Mexico. And they flew this flag, a horizontal, three-striped flag of light blue and white with the nation's seal in the center. It is said the white band between the two blue stripes represented their land in between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean. The coat of arms showed five mountains, one for each state, on top of which is a Phrygian cap, a symbol of the French Revolution and their own revolution against the Spanish. The flag was introduced to the area by Commodore Louis Michel O'Higgins and inspired by the Argentine flag. The nation also adopted the term United Provinces used in Argentina's original name Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata, perhaps wanting to mimic the successful example of Argentina in achieving independence from Spain and establishing itself as a new nation. That Argentine flag, in turn, was created by Manuel Belgrano, an Argentine military leader who chose the colors for the Argentine revolutionaries based on the colors of the Spanish order of Charles III, blue and white. From the 16th century Central America, apart from Panama, formed the Captaincy General of Guatemala within the Spanish Empire. But in 1821, locals declared the region's independence from Spain, although still separate. At the same time, Mexico achieved their independence and took some of their land for their own empire. So perhaps in hopes to help defend each other, they formed the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. They existed together as a single country for a while, even emitting their own currency, but it didn't last long. They faced many issues, both between different regions, but also different factions. From 1838 to 1840 the federation descended into civil war, with conservatives fighting liberals and separatists fighting to secede. All of this led to the dissolution of the union and the establishment of the independent Central American nations we know today. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, added onto Panama and Belize who despite being independent on their own kept references to this first united flag as sovereign nations. And do you know how you could access the internet as if you were in almost any nation on earth? Through today's sponsor NordVPN. NordVPN is a good friend of the channel and not only have I worked with them for a while but I actually use their VPN myself. Here are 4 key reasons you should use NordVPN. 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A fun fact, because of the coat of arms, it is one of only four national flags in the world that features a firearm, along with those of Mozambique, Haiti, and Bolivia. Next, El Salvador, whose flag is arguably the most similar to the original Federation one. It uses a darker tone of blue and a slightly different coat of arms, but still very similar to the Union one. They also have an alternate flag that replaces the coat of arms with the words God, Union, Freedom, and Gold. From 1865 to 1912, a different flag was in use with a field of alternating cobalt blue and white stripes and a red canton containing stars. The stars symbolized the provinces of the republic. Once a new province was created, one star was added to the flag. This star-striped banner was considered to be inspired by the flag of the United States. It seems that perhaps this different flag adopted in 1865 was an attempt to have their own identity and move away from the federation one but then I guess they changed their mind and went back. Moving on to Honduras who also kept the horizontal blue and white colors. The tone of the blue is also different both from its neighbors and from the original flag with more of a turquoise tone although apparently this only changed in 2022 even though it was written into law in 1949 I guess they just forgot to change it. However, they did remove the old coat of arms as well. In 1866, five blue stars were placed on the flag, but their meaning is said to represent the five original provinces of the federation. El Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. A very odd case of a country's flag having symbols that represent its neighboring nations. Their naval ensign keeps the five stars, but adds the nation's coat of arms on top of them in the center of the flag. Next is Nicaragua which again kept a tremendously similar flag to the federated one but they could have gone a different way as they temporarily tried to. After the collapse of the union Nicaragua temporarily had a very different flag than that of its neighbors. It was still a horizontally striped flag but a tricolor of gold white and beige or brown. This is such a unique combination of colors that no other country in the world has even today. I honestly wish they had kept it but it only lasted from 1854 to 1858. And apparently some people also attribute another white, yellow and red flag with a green symbol in the center to this country from 1852 to 1854. But this one isn't as good looking I would say. The 1850s were a time of great internal conflict in the country. I believe the temporary adoption of the first flag might have to do with opposing factions in this internal conflict. Then they reverted to a version of the federation's flag with its of arms also depicting the Phrygian cap, the rainbow and the five mountains. Now let's move on to the countries that add red to their white and blue flags. Costa Rica is the only one of those three that was a part of that early federation of Central America. Despite some changes in the coat of arms, the current flag has existed since 1848, so very quickly after becoming independent on their own, they wanted their own flag. They temporarily kept the the federation flag and in 1840 even inverted it by using white-blue-white stripes instead of blue-white-blue, although quickly going back two years later. The current design is said to have been suggested by the wife of President José María, an admirer of France and its republic revolution, she recommended the addition of a red stripe to the flag, forming the modern banner, a combination of the original federation and this French Republic inspiration. Panama wasn't a part of that Central American Federation, instead being temporarily ruled by Gran Colombia which also declared independence from the Spanish Empire. Because of this, from 1821 to 1903 they used the Gran Colombian flag. As a desire and opportunity for independence emerged, a new flag had to be chosen. It is said that despite sharing colors with other Central American nations, it has little connection to them, and perhaps more to that of the United States, which aided them in achieving independence in order to buy influence for the construction of the Panama Canal, which they controlled for a long time. Apparently, there was an initial proposal called the Buenavista design, designed by the wife of a French engineer working on the canal. It was modeled off of the US flag, using a striped field with a top left canton. It was gold and red, and in the canton there were two united suns, perhaps representing the country as the union between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans through its canal. This wasn't the chosen flag though and instead it was the design of another woman, Maria de la Ossa de Amador, the first first lady of Panama. Her design was the current one, although the quadrants with the stars and the solid colors were initially inverted, then being switched a year later. And finally up north again is Belize. Belize was also not a part of the Central American Federation, in fact it was initially a British colony rather than a Spanish one. Belize only became independent in 1981, which is also the date in which its current flag was implemented. It does, however, also use the same colors, a dark blue field with two thin red stripes at the top and bottom. In the center is a white circle and inside of it, the country's coat of arms. This is a derivation of Belize's colonial coat of arms used on their unofficial colonial banner from 1950 to 1981, which was pretty much the same minus the red stripes. The official colonial flag though was a British colonial ensign in red with a different symbol, although similar to the contents of the shield inside the modern Court of Arms. In 1981, like I mentioned, Belize gained its independence and a competition was held to design a national flag for the country. The winning submission was the unofficial national flag used by the People's United Party with a red border added to all four sides, although that then changed to only the top and bottom. Blue and white were apparently this party's colors and the red was added to represent the opposition, although I'm not sure if that is accurate. So, that is why all Central American countries have similar flags, arguably divided into two groups, those that are only white and blue, four of them, and those that also add the red, the three others. Panama and Belize have their own origins, having been a part of Gran Colombia and the British Empire, respectively, while the other ones have the origin of all their flags in the flag of the temporary Federal Republic of Central America. This flag was in turn inspired in the Argentine flag whose origin we also quickly learned here. It's interesting that, despite achieving their own individual independence as sovereign nations, they chose to keep incredibly similar flags, even maintaining elements in the coat of arms that represent their neighbors, some implementing slight changes such as the coat of arms, the tone of the blue or the orientation of the stripes with only Costa Rica adding a permanent new color, the red stripe. Although there were some attempts at using different designs and colors in some of them throughout history, like we saw for Nicaragua or El Salvador. From my perspective, it's a shame that these flags all look the same, I get that perhaps they want to continue sharing a common heritage, but each nation has their own identity, and it would be cool to see them have their own unique symbols represented. What do you think? Should these countries change their flags into something more unique, or keep these similar ones. Also, which other groups of similar flags are there in the world? On my list are southern American flags as well as both west and east African ones. Let me know if I'm missing any others. Thanks so much for watching this video. Subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.