Why Do All CENTRAL AMERICAN Countries Have Such Similar Flags?
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- čas přidán 22. 05. 2024
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▶ In this video I talk about Central American Flags. Pointing out their similarities. Namely those of colours - using blue and white (Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras), and blue white and red (Costa Rica, Panama and Belize); only changing in the tones of blue. These countries declared independence from the Spanish Empire, having been part of the Captaincy General of Guatemala during colonial times. In 1821 they declared independence, many of them alone, but perhaps due to the expansion of the Mexican Empire to their North (who had also recently achieved independence), they chose to join up together in 1823 and created the Federal Republic of Central America (or the United Provinces of Central America) which joined up the modern countries of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Panama was left out due to belonging to Gran Colombia, and Belize still being a British Colony. The flag they chose for this Central American Union was inspired in that of Argentina, a horizontal three-stripped flag of light blue and white. Upon the dissolution of this Federal Republic due to its internal struggles, many of the newly independent countries kept on using the same flag on their own, later adapting them and slightly changing the tone of blue or orientation of the stripes (sometimes adding a new color) as well as adding their coat of arms to differentiate themselves from their neighbours, but choosing to maintain the similarity in most cases. Although there were a few exceptions in some cases where these countries tried using completely different flags, but then reverting to a version of the original one.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:56 Federal Republic of Central America
03:41 NordVPN
05:07 Guatemala
05:55 El Salvador
06:48 Honduras
07:34 Nicaragua
08:36 Costa Rica
09:24 Panama
10:38 Belize
11:51 Summary
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*Which other regions of the world use similar flags?*
arabia
West / east African flags or Scandinavian flags
Interesting-and informative.
🤔But no mention of the flag of William Walker’s regime?
🤔Or _WAS_ there even a flag?
🤔Was never able to find good info about this. According to some sources, the flag was just the official Nicaraguan flag with a red star in the middle. According to other sources, that flag was just a “personal” flag of Walker’s, with the then-current Nicaraguan flag still being the “official” flag. A very recent bio of Walker mentioned his enemy Cornelius Vanderbilt mentioning before some Central American diplomats, that Walker was going to introduce a new Nicaraguan flag with-IIRC/ISTR-a red star imposed upon 5 alternating white and blue stripes, and a printed motto, “Five or None.” Which-according to this bio account-Vanderbilt was certain that the motto implied that Walker was set on taking over the rest of Central America.
I can’t find info on *that* flag anywhere else.
🤔 Anyone happen to know anything about this?…
폴란드 인도네시아
All regions! 😂
There was also a sixth, albeit short-lived state in the Federal Republic of Central America. The state of Los Altos (Spanish for 'The Highlands') broke away from Guatemala, while the Federal Republic was still active. At the dissolution of the Federal Republic, Los Altos became a sovereign country. However, in a few years Guatemala occupied it, and incorporated the territory once again. The flag of Los Altos was of course similar to all the other Central American flags, although it's worth noting that it had a red stripe at the bottom. It's also worth noting that the bird in the Guatemalan flag, the quetzal came from the Los Altos flag. Los Altos' capital, Quetzaltenango and Guatemala's current national currency, the quetzal all got their names from the bird.
I love how the flag of Honduras arranges the stars in a way that it looks like the letter 'H'. Not sure if it's intentional but it looks nice
I wanna say it was intentional, then again, I have no connection to Honduras so I’ll never know
I didn't even notice that! Very cool
@@twistedsky_97 I would like to say its intentional because it soulds like a really cool fact but no, like it was mention in the video it just represent the original 5 states in the union. I am from Honduras btw.
@@allancaldera a ok. I didn’t know porque mi familia de lado de mi mamá son de El Salvador. Bendiciones
Viva Honduras 🇭🇳
As a Guatemalan i feel no shame but rather proud that our flags are similar, it shows that desire to be together again. Instead of fighting against one's brother we should be fighting together. La Unión hace la fuerza
To add to the video: The inspiration was not born for no reason, but rather it was thanks to Hipólito Bouchard who made successful incursions in Central America, where Royalist forces were located, until ending in Florida. Where the Argentine flag still flies today on coast of California.
I think that's been disproved. Still, hats off to Bouchard, one of the most preeminent argentine captains. He once took Monterey, then the capital of California, and claimed it in the name of Argentina. They didn't have the logistics to keep it and had to leave but for a short time California was argentinian soil!
The main reason the Union failed was the isolation and difficult communication between the provinces. During the spanish rule the naval force and the threat of an english attack were the only things that kept the territory together. It is interesting to see that despite not been able to forge a nation there is something of an identity visible in the flags. I’m from Guatemala btw.
Yeah it's cool how the symbol of unity remained even though the union itself didn't.
Is there any appetite to revive the union today?
@@sdrawkcabUK There have been efforts to revive the union but they were unsuccessful. In the 70s there was an economical and tariff union that fell apart in the 80s due to regional and external reasons. Nowadays what exist is the Central America Integration System, that also includes Panama and Belize. Even if Central America is not together in one nation, the people of each country consider the other countries as sisters countries.
@@sdrawkcabUKthere are a couple of institutions we share, like the central american parliament, but is more symbolic than a real integration effort. After almost 200 years as independent countries I don’t think any of our nations would be willing to give up Its independence now. For the most part we are very friendly to each other tho. Except Belize and Nicaragua, sadly.
actually the biggest reason was the constant fighting between Guatemala and the rest, the guatemalan elite wanted to control everything like in colonial times, the rest of the provinces (specially El Salvador) were more liberal
Love how you say "Ni'aragua"
Learning these flags was a nightmare. El Salvador and Nicaragua are pretty much indistinguishable except for the small coat of arms
World: Why do you guys have similar flags?
Central America: Yes
The Panamanian flag is easily the most recognizable flag design from them
Agreed! Costa Rica too, I would say
Clearly the best looking. Much better than any tricolour.
Also Honduras, the stars are in a sort of H organisation
@@General.Knowledge Arizona should annex Sonora
@@General.KnowledgePanama looks like the Dominican flag 🇩🇴🇵🇦 and Costa Rica looks like the Thailand flag🇨🇷🇹🇭
The way he says “hondurash.” I love it ❤
It's because of his Portuguese accent.
Love it.
Also in a total schadenfreude kinda way - reassuring to someone who speaks Spanish fluently but with an unshakeable guiri accent
Also ‘Nyehragua’ 😂
The reason why all 5 of the original nations keep similar designs is that many of their citizens don't see their neighbors as neighbors but as brothers or sisters. Even today there's still a desire to go back to the federation. As independent nations, they are too small and not powerful enough in the world stage; but together they are stronger than their parts. Yes, there a conflicts and even now there are some disagreements amongst these nations - with the Honduran government being somewhat hostile towards El Salvador, and Nicaragua being communist friendly. It is mostly the political parties and leaders who have the most disagreements. The general public really doesn't feel strongly anti-anyone else. Some borders are completely open amongst neighbors and people commute from one side to the other for work on the daily. Some border towns even accept the other country's currency since they are so intertwined. In other words, these nations aren't trying to display that they have a common ancestry. They are displaying that they are like a fragmented family seeking to reunite again; despite this, they are still brethren. - Reminds me of something many families say (including my grandmother): No matter how thin the blood gets, family is family and love is never any less.
There's a huge (really INSANE) nationalism in those countries and conflicts between people, the borders aren't open and those things happens in every border in the world is nothing special
Not gonna lie I had no idea Honduras changed their flag that recently, I assumed it was always that colour lol
It technically was already like this, on paper, but no one ever remembered to actually change it in printed flags!
@@General.Knowledge the change was due to political ideology, the dark blue was the same color of the political party that made the change. An opposition party won the past elections and they reinstated the official color.
I love seeing foreign people taking about our countries :)
hi from an Honduran :) 🇭🇳
Great video! I want to point out something, though. Panama was a part of Gran Colombia (just Colombia at the time but now we name it that way to distinguish itself from present-day Colombia). Colombia (then known as Nueva Granada) was a part of Gran Colombia too, and when this union was dissolved (1831), the current Colombia was established, with Panama (the Istmo) being still a part of this country. Panama was a part of both the Gran Colombia and the modern Colombia, not just the first one.
I hope you keep making videos like this, they're awesome!
Thank you for the video 🇬🇹
You voice is so soothing, I love it
Thanks!
Esa es una excelente pregunta.
Translation
That is an excellent question.
Excellent video. Congrats
I never knew any of this. Thanks man!
You know how in some languages blue and green are different shades of the same colour? In spanish we "blue" split into different colours, so changing a flag from light blue to dark blue is, to us, as big a change as it would be changing a flag from red to pink
I think that the fact the flags remain similar to each other is great. As Central-americans we do have a common identity, we celebrare our independence together and most of our traditions as well. Whenever we are abroad, we tend to feel safe when we see any of our flags, regardless it’s our contry or not.
It is true that the flag of the Federal Republic of Central America was inspired by the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, but not for any reason. The United Provinces, after the declaration of independence in 1816, hired multiple corsairs and pirates of French and English nationality to raid trade routes and attack Spanish ports throughout the continent. One of the most well known, Hipólito Bouchard, ventured to the Pacific coast weaving the flag of the United Provinces. When he arrived in Central America, people mistook the flag for a "Pan American Revolutionary Symbol", so they used it as well...
I didn't know this! Very interesting
They didn't mistook it for a Pan America Revolutionary Symbol. We still have on archives of Manuel Jose de Arce stating the motives of the creation of the flag and his argument was something a long the lines of honoring San Martin and Belgramo for their fight against the spanish, but they knew it was the flag of a country, because they stated it on documents.
People often get confused with the flags of El Salvador & Nicaragua. 🇸🇻 🇳🇮
Very nice video
The Costa Rican flag 🇨🇷 resembles a lot with the Thai national flag. 🇹🇭
Also Cuba 🇨🇺 and Puerto Rico 🇵🇷, Norway 🇳🇴 and Iceland 🇮🇸
I think about this alot
@@kgosimagano8966Yes indeed 🇵🇱 🇮🇩 Poland and Indonesia and Chad 🇹🇩 Romania 🇷🇴 and Moldova 🇲🇩 too
Please do a video of the northern European flags (Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, etc)
you should do the same for ecuador, colombia, and venezuela
🇵🇦: Excuse me?
There were more changes that this video tells. In Honduras case for example at one time the stars were of golden color.
The Honduran flag represents unionist ideals embraced by Francisco Morazán. 💙
🇦🇷🇳🇮🇭🇳🇸🇻🇮🇱
Israel also has a similar flag to Argentina, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador
The current Central American flags aren’t that interesting as they are so similar, but it’s interesting how they had really wild and different flags throughout their history yet went back to the original design. It’s also interesting to see how the coats of arms changed.
One thing to note is that until very recently the color of blue in Honduras' flag was much more similar to the blues in the other colors.
As a French I never knew the flag of Costa Rica was inspired by ours. Cool fact! Any Costa Rican here reading this: You rock.
Merci beaucoup!
aye, thank you homie, pura vida
There is much more french inspiration in the founding of our nations than you would expect. For example Guatemala is organized in departments not provinces as most former spanish territories did.
thanks, you rock too
Yes. You was so important in our history. Costa Rica was part of the spain empire but in Costa Rica there are a lot of french institutions: colleges, institutes, etc. Also, in the public high school we studied English but also French
Do a video on east Caribbean flags
The United Provinced of Central America was formed by Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
Panama was part of Great Colombia and Belize was part of the British Empire.
Guatemala is one of the few countries that still recognize the Republic of China (Taiwan) instead of the CCP.
The Colours Flag of Argentina.
🇦🇷
🇬🇹
🇭🇳
🇳🇮
🇸🇻
🇨🇷
Caribbean and Oceana maybe. No idea if the flags are similar, but those are two areas.
Don't forget about Los Altos and Chiapas, the two that didn't survive the breakup...also funny that the flag of Los Altos looks like Yugoslavia.
MAKE A VIDEO ON SOUTH AMERICAN COUNTRIES FLAGS MEANING
12:50 as a Centralamerican I have to say you’re very wrong here. We do not have unique identities. We’re basically all really similar and the only differences we have are the same differences you would find if you went around any decently populated country. Our accent food etc is pretty much the same with naturally some differences obviously.
Only Costs Rica has slightly strayed away from the Central American identity but the rest of the original Central American countries see each other as one even today, or even more so than years passed.
Fun fact! Most people in Costa Rica actually opposed independence, way less supported it than anywhere else in CA
Some context for the color change in the Honduras flag:
The color specified by the constitution of 1866 is turquoise, but in 1949 the dictator Tiburcio Carias Andino unofficially changed the color to dark blue, the same color of his political party (Partido Nacional)
The Partido Nacional had been in power most of the time for the past decades, it wasn't until the socialist party (Libre) won the elections that they reverted the unofficial change and went back to the turqoise color.
Love Central America from Turkiye❤
Don’t people in the middle east get confused with the word “America” when it comes to “Central America”? Because in that region they call the US as America, so Central America would be part of the US 🤔
@@geografisica you are right about that😅
Im Turkish/Salvadoran
@@geografisica we are not Middle Eastern
Turkiye is such a lovely country, we have a lot of its descendants in Honduras, greetings friend!
What are Indo-European Languages? Can you please give a video about that?
They are a family of languages all the way from Hindi to Icelandic, including Farsi, Latin, Russian and others. They all share some roots. But yeah a GK video about this will be great
I didnt know honduras flag has changed :)
Hello there 👋
Ondurash?
Can you do African flags next? theres alot of african flags that have the pan african red, black and green colors
It's the next episode on this series! Coming out May 19th.
7:39 / 13:33
I think that if someone don't recognize your countries' flag quickly is a sign that it needs to change.
There are too many countries with similar flags.
Here's a pun: please! Belize me! 😂😂😂
I mean: please! Believe me!
Did you say "Niaragua" throughout the whole video?
He did pronounce it right once. I doubt that a Portuguese, especially one with an excellent diction, would have trouble saying my country's name. I guess that CZcams's AI takes the first two syllables as the n word. At least he doesn't have to use the colloquial demonym. 😂
I think it's just a portuguese way
@@o_s-24 Os meus amigos do Porto não tiveram problemas em dizer Nicarágua. Apenas digo...
Ñarawa and Ondurash
i guess it's ti avoid youtube misunderstanding the word as the N word
On-doo-rush
General Knoledge : Central amrrican flags are super confusing .
Romania and Chad : Hold my beer 😅
Isn’t friends your favorite show
No
No
One of them, definitely
So why not do West Africa/African countries using the Pan-African colours next?
I think it.might be better to split the videos since there are a lot of African flags that use Green, Yellow, Red, and Black.
It's on my list! West African flags, it'll be uploaded on May 19th
So sad the Republic of Central America failed
Panama was a part of the Gran Colombia
Honduras is pronounced “Honduras” not “Hondurash” 😅
Panama opt for a flag that stand out of the Gran Colombia and Central America bunch
I think they are overusing coat of arms a lot. They should distinguish their flags more instead imo.
They dont have similar coats of arms though?
@@thelad9434 to be fair the cost of arms are pretty tiny. From afar, I can understand how someone could get the flags of El Salvador and Nicaragua mixed up despite the colour difference 🇸🇻🇳🇮
@@bababababababa6124 Honduras did a decent job by changing the colour a bit and Guatemala made theirs vertical instead. Maybe El Salvador and Nicaragua should consider small changes like that
@@bababababababa6124 They are made to be similar, used to be in a Union together. They are similar in hopes of reunifying once again.
@@mnm5165 Honduras’ flag was better back then, now it looks horrible and burns the eyes. Dark blue looked far better for a flag. This new turquoise color is no good.
Panama was never part of the central american unions. It was part of Columbia until US-backed independence in 1903.
Neither was Belize. Spain held on until 1862 until the British took it over. British Honduras didn't receive independence until 1981.
*Colombia (Columbia is a city in SC, USA)
Panama got independence from Spain in 1821 they separated from Colombia in 1903
Hondurash
Use to be one nation, there is a historical reason, it was not "just because" as I read some dumb comments
It is Nica-ra-gua, you always pronounce it like this Ni-ara-gua
I'm all for Panamá keeping its current flag. I do think that Panamá and Costa Rica should work together some more. They are different countries but they are more similar to each other than to the others, in development, politics, social services and environmental issues. El Salvador is a disaster (you get a miscarriage you go to jail for first degree murder), Honduras and Guatemala are in turmoil and Nicaragua isn't doing all that much better.
Nordic flags are simular 🇧🇻🇦🇽🇩🇰🇫🇮🇫🇴🇸🇪
We are waiting for somaliland episode please post soon
Almost like most of them used to be a part of the same country or something blehehhehehhe
Yeah maybe can’t put my finger on it
2:50 Mexico asked Central America if they wanted to form part of The Mexican Empire. Central America did election and the Yes won. After that we became part of the Mexican Empire when the Mexican Empire collapsed we declared independece for a second time.
im not even gonna watch the video, is it because of a former union?
😊
I'm curious if the Nicaraguan seal is triangular due to masonic influences or it has another meaning. I'm betting it does relate to masonic lodges as they also have a Phrygian cap.
It’s supposed to mean equality, but they would say that if it was a hidden masonic motif. Haha.
According Wikipedia: “Many of the anti-colonial revolutions in Latin America were heavily inspired by the imagery and slogans of the American and French Revolutions. As a result, the cap has appeared on the coats of arms of many Latin American nations”
I mean there are many pyramids in Latin America.
Does this pronunciation give us a hint that General Knowledge is Portuguese or something?
Panama and Belize aren't the original countries that existed in the Federal Republic of Central America. Panama used to be a province of Colombia and Belize used to be the 23 department of Guatemala. During colonialism the UK agreed to construct a highway that was supposed to link Guatemala City with the Atlantic Coast. Belize was stolen from Guatemala and The UK never constructed the highway and because of that Guatemala still has claims that Belize isn't a sovereign nation. My opinion on this historical matter is that Guatemala does deserve to get the Atlantic Coast along with the islands and atolls in the Atlantic Coast but they should leave Belize alone and let them be free.
I appreciate you saying that guatemala should leave my country alone but i have to say that the uk never stole us from guatemala you can say that the uk stole us from spain yes, our land was never for guatemala.
with nicaragua is impossible live together.
Probably would be easier to develop the region if it was unified again. Maybe have costa rica and panama be their own seperate country, untill the northern ones become more stable anyway. But to answer your question, every country with either a horizontal or vertical tricolour, in the world, should redesign their national flag, because they suck.
Does anyone know why Costa Rica became peaceful, democracy and wealthy , whilst the other countries descended into dictatorship, poverty and civil war?
No army
We abolished our army after the civil war in 1948 and the govt decided to invest in education and Healthcare. That's the reason. You're welcome!
less people, homogeneous population and isolation from the rest, this defined Costa Rica since colonial times
NAYIB BUKELE 🇸🇻🇸🇻
Central America didn’t “gain their independence around the same time as Mexico” they gained their independence WITH Mexico and Mexico didn’t “take some of their land” they WERE Mexico. In 1821 after declaring independence from Spain, Central America was a part of the Mexican Empire excluding only Panama because they were part of Greater Colombia.
Common history...lack of imagination...
🇭🇳
Next video: why do all African countries have similar flags ?
^ They use the Pan-African colors most of the time
Blame Ethiopia for that they started it
They use Ethiopia's colours, as Ethiopia was never colonized
@@o_s-24 Thats not why lol, its the Pan African colors
We, Hispanic Americans were not colonies. We were kinndons, provinces, capinaniads and the indians republic. Not colonies, that for the Anglo impire
The flag of Panama is wrong, represent the peace mada by the liberal party and the conservative party after the 1000 days war.
Are you sure nordVPN is not a scam or maleware
the way you pronounce Nicaragua is absolutely strange. like if the N-I-C-A in the name is silent. why do you pronounce it like that?
Why do you care? Like actually Jesus
@@Regnaild because i find the way people pronounce things interesting, especially when a word is pronounced in a manner i never heard. that's why i care. like actually Jesus.
tl;dr lack of imagination.
Apperantly wifes have a lot to do with flags eh ?
The Central American federation flag was inspired by the Argentinian flag
6:37 I don't think that was an attempt to make a clear cultural identity. Just like the Pro-Spain groups in Guatemala, El Salvador was controlled by pro-US groups for a long time. Eventually they brought back the UP of Central America inspired banner because that's where their true heritage and national identity lies
spanish pronunciation on point
“Hondurash” lol and “Iragua” 😂
you forgot argentina hahaha
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What if every Mexican state became independent
one day we shall reunificate, with Panama and Belize as new states
Keep dreaming! Even now the wonderful Ticos would be dismayed at the idea
@@sergiomontesdeoca5983 yo soy tico, qué mal que tantos compatriotas sean de mente cerrada
@@teb_hp no soy tu compatriota ( C R ) pero me sentiría bien si lo fuera. Me refiero a lo acontecido tres veces de 1821 a los 1850’s. Cada vez los atentos a unificación terminaron en bochornoso desacuerdo y eso después de tener una bandera para toda la región. La opción moderna sería una moneda común, pero considerando todo en general no serviría de mucho. Viva Costa Rica.
cuz they are basically the same shit
Mexico owns them😂
what
Only in football
Mexican backyard
Imagine this being your first though after watching this video, NPC much?
@@Coco13 Hey bro its not my fault its just how the world is
Mexico has *STATES* not provinces. Gosh, Americans always fail at history
He's not American