List of national flag proposals
Compilation of all the well documented national flag proposals of several countries, dependent territories, autonomies, and states with limited recognition.
''An asterisk in headings denotes an incomplete list, which has more proposals not in Wikimedia Commons yet.''
Algeria
In the summer of 1962, a flag was proposed during ceasefire talks between the National Liberation Front and the Secret Army Organisation representatives in Algiers:"And then, later on, the flag of the new state will be designed in the manner of the Commonwealth countries, Canada or Australia... the French colours in the upper right corner of the cloth".
The "upper right corner" in question can either refer to a canton or the upper fly. However, as inspiration from Commonwealth flags was taken and some Arabic flags are flown in sinister — the right side is where the flag pole is — it is likely to be a canton displayed in Arabic fashion to Fernand Carréras.
Angola
In June 1932, while working for the Portuguese Institute of Heraldry, Affonso Dornellas elaborated a coat of arms for the Colony of Angola and João Ricardo da Silva drew it. Even though the Estado Novo's Agência Geral das Colónias had asked for the shield, it was never used officially. Like other designs, the Agency used a modified version at the 1934 Colonial Exposition of Porto, before settling with the 1935 shield design.In 1966, heraldist Franz Paul de Almeira Langhans designed flags for Portuguese ultramarine provinces in his book "Armorial do Ultramar Português", that of Angola being the Flag of Portugal defaced with the colony's lesser arms shield on its lower fly side.
A red-green-black tricolor was allegedly mentioned by a reporter who visited Angola in the beginning of September of '96 to vexillologist Jaume Ollé as a "proposal under consideration to be the basis of a new national flag", it featured the colors of both the foundational MPLA and its main opposition while using the Pan-African flag colours. At the time, Rhodesian vexillologist Bruce Berry said the Angolan embassy in South Africa did not acknowledge any move to change the flag.
Additionally, in 1999 Ollé wrote about flags seen by him in Luanda pictures from '76: "Horizontal stripes of red, green and black Horizontal B-R-B horizontal Stripes of red, purple and green".
In 2003, a submission 106 by "Catica" was chosen by the National Constitutional Commission, an organ in charge of drafting the country's next constitution, as the new flag, its description being the following:
"A rectangular flag measuring 180 centimeters long and 120 centimeters wide, divided in five horizontal stripes: its top and bottom stripes are dark blue, each measuring 20 centimeters, the two intermediate stripes are white, each measuring 10 centimeters, and the central stripe is blood-red, measuring 60 centimeters. The middle red stripe features a design of a 15-ray yellowish sun comprising three irregular concentric circles which are inspired by the ancestral Tchitundo-Hulu rocks paintings in the country's Southwestern Namibe province. The sun symbolizes the riches and the historical and cultural identity of Angola".
The polemic new flag, along with a new athem, were supposed to be formally adopted after the planned 2005 general elections, which only ended up happening in '08, but this never happened.
UNITA has positioned itself against the current flag for its similarities with MPLA's and keeps on fighting for its change.
Armenia
In 1885, Ghevont Alishan, an Armenian Catholic priest and historian proposed 2 Armenian flags. The first is a horizontal tricolor flag of red-green-white, with red and green coming from the Armenian Catholic calendar, in which the first Sunday of Easter is called "Red Sunday" and the second Sunday is "Green Sunday", with white being added for design reasons. He then made another flag proposal, a vertical tricolor of red-green-blue, taken from the rainbow.In 1918, in the stage of deciding on what the flag should look like, artist Martiros Saryan proposed some flags, two of which were flags with the colors of the rainbow. He wrote, “there are many tricolors, multi-colored flag would be more suitable for us, because we are an oriental nation”. His drawings fell into oscurity, being only revealed in the 2000s.
Australia
The first flag that was considered as a proposal to represent the Australian people is the Eureka flag. Several demonstrators swore allegiance to the flag and flew it as a symbol of defiance during the Battle of the Eureka Stockade in 1854.In 1900, seeing how Federation approached and so would the need for a flag, the Melbourne Evening Herald initiated a contest promising a prize of 25 australian pounds to the winner. Entries were mandated to contain the Union Jack and the southern cross in their designs. The designs by Mr. F. Thompson was chosen as the winner.
This contest then prompted the Review of Reviews, also a Melbourne journal, to come up with a new competition in October 1900. They neglected the decision of obliging participants to include certain elements on the design of the flag.
Later, in 1901, the newly-formed Commonwealth Government held an official competition, which also included the proposals made to the Review of Reviews competitions in 1900. Five winners were chosen, with their designs only differing in small details. The first Australian flag was tuned using elements from this five winners.
However, the Australian flag debate has been a topic of discussion for years, dating back to the early 1990s after the adoption of the official flag after Federation. The main points of the debate on whether Australia should adopt a new flag discuss the elimination of the Union Jack, and the representation of Australia's complex and multicultural history. This prompted several unofficial redesign contests, such as the ones by The Daily Telegraph in 1982, Adelaide Advertiser in 1992, and A Current Affair in 1993, among many others.
Bahamas
In 1973, when the flag design for the Bahamas was submitted for approval to the Garter King of Arms, the head of the College of Arms, Sir Anthony Wagner, proposed that the gold and aquamarine stripes swapped colours. Nevertheless, this change never took place, and the current Bahamian flag was adopted.Belarus
In 1990, the authorities of Minsk allowed the use of the white-red-white national flag along with the state flag of the SSR. This led to many opposition supporters to create more proposals bearing this design, including flags with the Pahonia contained in the red stripe, and some even resembling a Nordic cross due to the addition of a red bar towards the hoist.Right after declaring independence from the USSR in 1991, the special sixth session of the XII Council of the Belarusian SSR commenced with the objective to address several topics, including the republic's name, state flag, and coat of arms. Flag designs were submitted by the public, many involving the colours red, green, and blue.
In 1993, due to unrest regarding the adopted white-red-white flag, the future president Alexander Lukashenko proposed a referendum to change the flag, but was rejected. Once he became president in 1995, Lukashenko proposed a version that consisted of two thin green stripes top and bottom, and a central red field. This flag, alongside a version similar to the one used by the SSR without the hammer and sickle, were put forward for a referendum, including their respective coat of arms designs. The latter won the referendum and was adopted as the current flag of Belarus.
Belgium
In 2008, Belgian artist Luc Swinnen made a proposal to the Belgian flag, adding pixels blurring the lines between the stripes to symbolize Belgium's interwoven cultures and languages.In 2010, Dutch designer Theun Okkerse proposed a new Belgian flag, with a yellow-black-yellow background representing the Flemish people combined with a yellow-red-yellow design representing the Walloons, and their intersection creating four "arrows" pointing to the center of the flag.
In 2011, Belgian cartoonist Pierre Kroll designed a new flag for Belgium, divided into four squares, colored yellow, red, blue, and white. Yellow representing the Flemish people, red representing the Walloons, blue representing Brussels, and white representing the German-speaking Community of Belgium.
Bolivia
After winning Bolivia's presidency and in the wake of Bolivia's constitutional reforms, discussions of changing the flag were engaged. Evo Morales appeared at a football match with the following flag on his jersey in October 2006, made of the Bolivian colors crossed by the wiphala. In the end, no change was made.Bosnia and Herzegovina*
In 1992 and 1997, several flag proposals were given for Bosnia and Herzegovina.In 1992, one of the proposals was a horizontal tricolor of green-red-blue tricolor with green representing Bosniaks, red representing Croats, and blue representing Serbs.
Another flag from that time was proposed, it being the accepted flag but with blue bands at the left and right sides.
Another one, proposed by defenders of Sarajevo, consisted of a blue triangle in the bottom-right taking up half of the flag with 3 fleur-de-lis, and the other half of the flag consisting of 6 red and white stripes, making the Pan-Slavic colors.
In 1997, a flag change was again happening as Bosnian Serbs considered the accepted flag of representing only Bosniaks. There was a "Czech"-style proposal, with a blue triangle for Eastern Orthodox Serbs, green bar for Sunni Muslim Bosniaks, and red bar for Latin Catholic Croats. There were also 2 proposals of a light blue background, one with an olive branch and the other with a map of Bosnia and Herzegovina on it, likely meant to be uncontroversial designs.
There were four other similar proposals, all containing a map of Bosnia, either blue or yellow, within a red-white-blue tricolor, either diagonal or horizontal, within either 10 stars in a circle, or 2 olive branches taken from the Flag of the United Nations.
Three proposals were made by High Representative Carlos Westendorp, one being the adopted flag but with a shade of blue similar to the UN flag, another containing 5 stripes coming from each side of the flag without reaching the other side in yellow and white on a UN-like blue background, and the final being the same as the previous but with 12 stripes and them forming a triangle in the flag's center.