Flags of former countries

Soviet Union

The hammer, sickle and red star, flown until the union broke up in 1991.

Russian Empire

Black, gold and white, the imperial colours of the Romanovs.

Transcaucasian SFSR

Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, joined as one Soviet republic from 1922 to 1936.

Yugoslavia

Blue, white and red with a red star, from 1946 to the federation’s break-up in 1992.

Kingdom of Yugoslavia

The plain blue, white and red of the first Yugoslavia, 1918–1941.

Kingdom of Montenegro

Montenegro’s double eagle, until the kingdom merged into Yugoslavia in 1918.

East Germany

Germany’s tricolour with a hammer, compass and ring of rye, until reunification in 1990.

Prussia

Prussia’s black eagle. The state that unified Germany was abolished in 1947.

Holy Roman Empire

The black double-headed eagle on gold, until the empire was dissolved in 1806.

Austria-Hungary

Austria’s and Hungary’s arms side by side on the civil ensign of the dual monarchy, 1869–1918.

Free City of Danzig

Two crosses under a crown on red: a free city under the League of Nations from 1920 to 1939.

Byzantine Empire

A cross between four Greek letters beta, a banner of the last Byzantine dynasty.

Republic of Venice

The winged lion of St Mark. The republic lasted a thousand years, until Napoleon ended it in 1797.

Duchy of Milan

The Visconti eagles and the biscione, a serpent swallowing a man.

Kingdom of Sardinia

The white cross of Savoy. This kingdom unified Italy in the 1860s.

Kingdom of Italy

Italy’s tricolour with the Savoy shield, 1861–1946.

Grand Duchy of Tuscany

The grand duchy of the Medici and then the Habsburg-Lorraines, joined to Italy in 1860.

Kingdom of the Two Sicilies

Naples and Sicily under the Bourbons, conquered by Garibaldi in 1860.

Papal States

Yellow and white, the colours the Vatican still flies. Rome fell to Italy in 1870.

Kingdom of France

Gold fleurs-de-lis on blue, the arms of the French kings.

Spanish Empire

The Cross of Burgundy, flown across Spain’s empire for three centuries.

Kingdom of Portugal

Blue and white with the royal arms, until Portugal became a republic in 1910.

Ethiopian Empire

The Lion of Judah on green, yellow and red, until the monarchy fell in 1974.

Kingdom of Egypt

A crescent and three stars on green, 1922–1958.

Republic of the Rif

A republic in northern Morocco that fought Spain and France from 1921 to 1926.

Kingdom of Benin

Long attributed to the Kingdom of Benin, though where it really comes from is uncertain.

Merina Kingdom

The kingdom that ruled most of Madagascar until France took it in 1897.

Sultanate of Zanzibar

The sultanate’s flag, until the revolution of 1964.

Tanganyika Territory

A giraffe’s head, the badge of British-run Tanganyika.

Tanganyika

Green, black and yellow. Tanganyika joined Zanzibar in 1964 to form Tanzania.

Belgian Congo

The gold star of Leopold II’s Congo Free State, which Belgium took over in 1908.

Zaire

A hand holding a flaming torch, Mobutu’s flag for Congo from 1971 to 1997.

Katanga

Three copper crosses, the old currency of the mining province that broke from Congo in 1960–1963.

Biafra

Half a rising sun. Biafra broke from Nigeria in 1967 and was defeated in 1970.

Gold Coast

The Blue Ensign of the colony that became Ghana in 1957.

Upper Volta

Black, white and red for the three Volta rivers. Renamed Burkina Faso in 1984.

Mali Federation

A kanaga figure on the flag of Mali and Senegal’s brief union, 1959–1960.

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

Plain green from 1977 to 2011, the only national flag with no design at all.

Rhodesia

Green and white with the arms, flown by white-minority Rhodesia from 1968 to 1979.

People's Republic of Mozambique

The first flag of independent Mozambique, 1975–1983.

Orange Free State

Orange and white stripes with the Dutch flag: a Boer republic annexed by Britain in 1900.

Transvaal

The Vierkleur, the Dutch tricolour with a green stripe: flag of the Boers’ South African Republic.

Umayyad Caliphate

Plain white, the colour of the Umayyads.

Abbasid Caliphate

Plain black, the colour of the Abbasids.

Ottoman Empire

A white crescent and star on red, the flag modern Turkey kept.

Kingdom of Hejaz

The flag of the Arab Revolt of 1916, the model for Jordan’s and Palestine’s flags.

Kingdom of Iraq

The Arab Revolt colours with two stars, 1924–1959.

United Arab Republic

Egypt and Syria’s union of 1958–1961. Syria went on flying this design for decades.

South Yemen

Yemen’s colours with a blue triangle and red star; merged with the north in 1990.

Imperial Iran

The lion and sun, until the revolution of 1979.

Kingdom of Afghanistan

Black, red and green with the royal arms, 1931–1973.

Durrani Empire

The 18th-century empire where modern Afghanistan began.

Emirate of Bukhara

An emirate absorbed by Soviet Russia in 1920.

Khanate of Khiva

A crescent and star on black; the khanate fell to Soviet Russia in 1920.

Sikh Empire

Ranjit Singh’s Punjab, annexed by Britain in 1849.

British Raj

The Red Ensign with the Star of India, one of the flags used for British India.

Hyderabad State

The Nizam’s princely state, annexed by India in 1948.

Sikkim

A Buddhist wheel on white. Sikkim became an Indian state in 1975.

Ceylon

Sri Lanka’s lion, before the green and orange stripes were added in 1951.

British Burma

The Blue Ensign with a peacock, for British-run Burma.

Union of Burma

Independent Burma’s first flag, 1948–1974.

Siam

A white elephant on red, until Thailand’s striped flag replaced it in 1917.

Kingdom of Laos

The three-headed elephant Erawan, until the monarchy ended in 1975.

Khmer Republic

Angkor Wat in the canton, 1970–1975.

People's Republic of Kampuchea

The Vietnamese-backed state of 1979–1989, with Angkor in yellow on red.

Empire of Vietnam

A trigram on yellow: the Japanese-backed empire of 1945.

South Vietnam

Yellow with three red stripes, flown until Saigon fell in 1975.

Straits Settlements

The Blue Ensign of Penang, Malacca and Singapore.

Kingdom of Sarawak

Ruled by the Brooke family, the “White Rajahs”, from 1841 to 1946.

Qing Dynasty

The Yellow Dragon Flag, China’s first national flag, 1889–1912.

Beiyang China

Five stripes for five peoples: the early Republic of China’s flag, 1912–1928.

Manchukuo

Japan’s puppet state in Manchuria, 1932–1945.

Tannu Tuva

A Buddhist wheel; the republic was absorbed into the Soviet Union in 1944.

Korean Empire

The Taegukgi, the forerunner of South Korea’s flag.

Ryukyu Kingdom

An island kingdom annexed by Japan in 1879, now Okinawa.

Republic of Formosa

A tiger on blue. The republic on Taiwan lasted a few months in 1895.

Mexican Empire

Maximilian’s imperial standard, 1864–1867.

Republic of Yucatán

Five stars on green; Yucatán broke from Mexico in the 1840s.

Republic of the Rio Grande

A breakaway republic in northern Mexico in 1840.

Federal Republic of Central America

Blue, white, blue: still echoed in five Central American flags.

Gran Colombia

Yellow, blue and red, the colours Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela still fly.

Peru-Bolivian Confederation

A union of Peru and Bolivia, 1836–1839.

Empire of Brazil

Green and gold with the imperial arms. The republic kept the colours after 1889.

Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia

Proclaimed by a French lawyer in southern Chile and Argentina in 1860, and never recognised.

British Guiana

The Blue Ensign of the colony that became Guyana in 1966.

British Honduras

The Blue Ensign of the colony that became independent Belize in 1981.

Netherlands Antilles

Five stars for five islands, until the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved in 2010.