The World Encyclopedia of Flags

Some countries have flags of their states included, such as Australia, Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Russia's autonomous republics (Dagestan, Chechnya), and oh yes, the U.S. From looking at our states, it's disheartening to see how many states still have the Confederate flag or red saltire on them (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi).
The best thing about this book is how the colours and symbol of each country/province/state/canton's flag is explained. For example, Ireland has a tricolore of green, white, and orange vertical stripes. The green represents the Catholics, the orange the Protestants (as in William of Orange), and the white is for peace between both groups. Let's look at another tricolore, Guinea's red-yellow-green. The red is the blood/sacrifice of the people, the yellow is the gold of Guinea and the sun, and the green represents vegetation and agriculture. Isn't this useful?

And most flag proportions are 2:3, but others are 1:2 (Latvia, Libya, Nigeria). And some are irregular. Belgium's flag is 13:15, Switzerland and its cantons are 1:1, Mexico is 4:7, and our own, 10:19.

What about flag families? Then there are colours associated with certain movements. For example, green, yellow, and red are the Pan-African colours. Black, green, red, and white are the Pan-Arab colours. They represent the colour of the dynasties of the Islamic Empire (black for Abbasids, green for Fatimids, white for Umayyads, and red for Hashemites). Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and Syria have flags with those colours. And with the breakup of Yugoslavia, all but Bosnia and Macedonia have the blue, white, and red Pan-Slav colours.

The French tricolore has influenced many other countries' flags with its three vertical stripes. Romania, Italy, Belgium, Guinea, and Cote D'Ivoire. And it's no coincidence that all the Scandinavian countries have identical flags--they're based on the Scandinavian cross.

Symbols are also explained. The Muslim crescent and star, a main symbol of Islam and mentioned in the 53rd surah of the Quran, is adopted by Turkey, Algeria, and Pakistan, for example. And writing. The writing on the Iraqi flag reads "God Is Great," which ironically is what is written 22 times in Sufic script along the Iranian flag. ...

Parts of flags: this is an interesting one. Much of this is technical terms. The hoist is the first (left) vertical half, the fly is the right vertical half. Then there are charges (figures) For example, that upper rectangle of our flag is a canton. A saltire, i.e. the cross part in the British flag, is what is used to divide the flag into four parts. And the trapezium, a sideways trapezoid on the left part of a flag, is what Kuwait has.

There are also flags of international organizations, such as the UN, Red Cross, or League of Arab States. Regional flags, flags of revoltution (Sandinistas, Viet Cong, FRELIMO) flags of ethnic people without nation-states (Kurds, Shans, Sorbs), and political flags are also included. Example: white is a monarchist flag, black is for anarchists, red is for socialists. And the Nazi flag spawned so many imitations, such as the Arrow Cross, Afrikaner Resistant Movement, and Fronte della Gioventu--all are red with a white circle and black symbol.

This was updated in 2002, before East Timor gained independence, so much of this is up-to-date. Who knows, those inspired to create your own personal flag may take notes from this valuable reference work.