The flag of Mauritius is made up of four equal horizontal bands of red, blue, yellow, and green colors from top to the bottom. The flag is named the four bands or the “Les Quatre Bandes” in French. The flag was adopted as the national flag on March 12, 1968, when Mauritius got its independence. Mauritius also has a coat of arms, which is added to the middle of the national flag to make the presidential flag. The measurement of the flag has a proportion of 2:3.
The flag’s colors have distinct meanings the red depicts the struggle for independence and freedom from colonial rule. Blue symbolizes the Indian Ocean waters in which Mauritius is located. Yellow stands for the light after independence and green represent the green environment or agriculture and their appearance throughout the year.
The flag of Mauritius has several variants at present. Nothing much is said about who designed the flag. The present-day variants of the flag include the merchant flag which is red with a canton of the national flag, and the coat of arms in a white circle on the fly. The state ensign is blue, with a canton of the national flag, and the coat of arms, without the white circle, on the fly.
Previous versions of flags used in Mauritius include between 1638 and 1710, the Dutch company when the Dutch East India occupied Mauritius. The flag they used then consisted of three equal horizontal bands of red white and blue. The white band was in the middle of the two, and it contained a large black letter V and small letters O and C in the middle. The second flag was the flag used by Mauritius under French rule. The flag was used from 1715 to 1792 and was the same flag used by France when it was a monarch. As from 1782 to 1810, still under French rule, the current flag of France was used. As from 1869 to 1906, Mauritius was under British colonial rule, and the flag consisted of a blue field with a Union Jack canton and a coat of arms on the fly of the flag. In 1906 to 1923, Mauritius still under British rule made some changes to the flag of 1896, a new coat of arms was designed, and it replaced the old coat of arms on the flag.
This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018
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