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Colombia

República de Colombia, Republic of Colombia

Last modified: 2024-08-03 by daniel rentería
Keywords: colombia | america |
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[Flag of Colombia] (2:3) image by Zoltán Horváth, 8 May 2024

Official Name: Republic of Colombia (República de Colombia)
Capital: Bogota (Santafé de Bogotá)
Flag adopted: 26 November 1861
Coat of Arms adopted: 6 August 1955

See also:

Other sites:

The National Flag

According to [pay00] - National flag (CSW/-S- (2:3)) - Regarding the yellow stripe, the Album approximation gives it as Pantone 135c. Some other sources also agree that the shade of Colombian yellow is different from the shade used by Ecuador and Venezuela (notably Shipmate Chart and [zna99]). However, converting the given Pantone to RGB gave by my software one colour that I'd call buff, much similar to the colour used in Album as the background, and certainly not very yellow. I chose this light yellow shade to represent the Colombian yellow. Hopefully this is not much mistaken, and anyway, it serves only to show the difference from the other two Nuevagranadan yellows.
Željko Heimer, 16 May 2001

I must say that some colours given in album 2000 seem quite strange. Pantone 135 is NOT yellow but it is buff and nothing else, you are right. Yellow shades in [zna99] are the same for all three states, blue is different.
Ralf Stelter, 17 May 2001

On page 207 of [zna99] is so as Ralf Stelter say, but when taking a look at page 128, here blue is different, indeed, but yellows are distinctly different. However, Colombian is here darker then the other two. Also in Shipmate chart, now when I look at it in daylight, the Colombian yellow seems darker then the other two, but the difference is not so obvious.
Željko Heimer, 17 May 2001

In National flags and distinctive markings - Change Nr 1 [pay01] - Yellow shade changed on all flags (116c / C0-M15-Y95-K0 instead of 135c / C0-M20-Y60-K0)
Ivan Sache, 8 October 2001

The presidency of Colombia has issued a campaign to promote national unity against violence and for peace. The campaign exhorts Colombians to hoist their flag permanently outside their homes, workplaces, cars, etc. All the info (not much, indeed) is at this site www.presidencia.gov.co.
Guillermo Tell Aveledo Coll, 24 April 2002

I found the CMYK codes for the Colombian flag. I don't know if whether they're official, but I found them on the Colombian President's office website, so they could be. Here they are
Yellow: C:0, M:10, Y:100, K:0
Blue: C:100, M:70, Y:0, K:0
Red: C:0, M:100, Y:90, K:0
Source: www.presidencia.gov.co.
Carlos A Leiva, 30 July 2002

Album [pay01] has slightly different values, given there as approximate:
Yellow: C:0 - M:15 - Y:95 - K:0
Blue: C:100 - M:70 - Y:0 - K:30
Red: C:0 - M:90 - Y:80 - K:0
Ivan Sache, 5 August 2002

Though indeed Colombia's flag has a "darker" shade of yellow than Ecuador and Venezuela it is slightly lighter than the one depicted in your page. If you ignore the "shadow" effects, the shade of yellow in the flags of the new rendition of the Coat of Arms (rather than a new coat of arms per se) is the proper shade.
Jaime Vengoechea, 6 January 2003

"Miranda gave at least two sources of inspiration for his flag. In a letter written to Count Semyon Vorontsov in 1792, Miranda stated that the colors were based on a theory of primary colors given to him by the German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Miranda described a late-night conversation he had with Goethe at a party in Weimar during the winter of 1785. Fascinated with Miranda's account of his exploits in the United States Revolutionary War and his travels throughout the Americas and Europe, Goethe told him that, "Your destiny is to create in your land a place where primary colors are not distorted." He proceeded to clarify what he meant by this:
First he explained to me the way the iris transforms light into the three primary colors […] then he proved to me why yellow is the most warm, noble and closest to [white] light; why blue is that mix of excitement and serenity, a distance that evokes shadows; and why red is the exaltation of yellow and blue, the synthesis, the vanishing of light into shadow. It is not that the world is made of yellows, blues and reds; it is that in this manner, as if in an infinite combination of these three colors, we human beings see it. […] A country [Goethe concluded] starts out from a name and a flag, and it then becomes them, just as a man fulfils his destiny."
Daniel Aarhus, 23 July 2013

Very interesting writing. I've heard and read the story behind Miranda's creation of the first tricolor flag of Venezuela (which would, in turn, be adopted by Colombia and Ecuador as their national colors). However I hadn't heard the full story, so I believe it should be added to the Venezuelan, Colombian and Ecuadorian pages respectively, as they all share the same flag.
Esteban Rivera, 04 August 2013

First use of Colombian flag

Since the Colombian tricolor was first raised (as mentioned by Jorge Candeias, on his October 1, 1999 post "(on) 12 March 1806, our national tricolour was flown for the first time. Miranda was inspired by the predominant colours of the rainbow [?] and it was flown on land in the port of La Vela (in today's Department of Guajira in August of the same year" (see: Historical Flags (pre-1856), official website of the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia, it is clear that this was in fact the first time the tricolor flew over Colombia as a national flag. This flag (with specific measurements and minor detail changes, such as the width of the stripes) was the basis for the flag adopted during the Congress of Angostura (a pro tempore executive and legislative body during a time or war, established on February 15, 1819, prior to the "Campaña Libertadora" (official full name: "Campaña Libertadora de Nueva Granada", "Liberating Campaing of New Grenada), which was the final military offensive to liberate Colombia (then known as New Grenada) from Spanish rule, which in turn began on May 23, 1819 with the outline of the military plan and ended after the two major engagements of the Batlle of Boyacá and the Battle of Vargas Swamp which allowed Simón Bolívar to enter the capital Bogotá, on August 10, 1819, formally ending the campaign). The Congress of Angostura adopted the symbols (Coat of Arms and flag) of Venezuela as the ones for Colombia, because they sought to form a unified country and because the Venezuelan symbols were more in use. This was followed by the Congress of Cúcuta a de iure Congress, established on August 30, 1821 in Cúcuta. This Congress ended on October 3, promulgating the Constitution of Cúcuta which formally established the Republic of Colombia which then incorporated Venezuela and Colombia (it also included Panamá, which at the moment was part of Colombia). In this Constitution, the adopted official symbols (Coat of Arms and flag) ratified what the Congress of Angostura proclaimed, and added some details to the final design, as seen here, and you mention in the Flag Dates: by country list that Colombia first adopted its tricolor flag on November 26, 1861, which is totally wrong.
It is possible that the location of La Vela, mentioned in my previous message, is actually La Vela del Coro, in Falcón, Venezuela and not in La Guajira, Colombia. In fact, in La Vela del Coro there's a promenade which shows the historical evolution of the Venezuelan flag.
Also, It's important to add the following: the inspiration for the tricolor was adopted based on General Miranda's militia flag. Now, the issue is actually where did he the inspiration from? An important mention of this is that he was inspired by the Hamburger Bürgerwache (see also Hamburg Citizens' Sentinels page) but also by Christopher Columbus' personal coat of arms.
Source: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera_de_Colombia
Esteban Rivera, 28 October 2015

National Flag at the London 2012 Olympics

The protocol manual for the London 2012 Olympics (Flags and Anthems Manual London 2012 [loc12]) provides recommendations for national flag designs. Each NOC was sent an image of the flag, including the PMS shades, for their approval by LOCOG. Once this was obtained, LOCOG produced a 60 x 90 cm version of the flag for further approval. So, while these specs may not be the official, government, version of each flag, they are certainly what the NOC believed the flag to be.
For Colombia: PMS 116 yellow, 287 blue, 186 red. TThe vertical flag is simply the horizontal version turned 90 degrees anti-clockwise
Ian Sumner, 10 October 2012

Meaning of the Colors

Editorial Note: We present the most popular interpretations of the colours of the flag, but it is also our duty to make the difference between "official explanations", if any and general belief. There is, as a rule, no inherent meaning of colours except in rare cases where the exact meaning is mentioned in the legislation.

Two interpretations:
1. The yellow symbolizes sovereignty and justice; the blue nobility, loyalty and vigilance; and the red valor, honor, generosity and victory achieved at the high cost of bloodshed.
2. Yellow: universal liberty; blue: the equality of all races and social classes before God and the law; Red: fraternity
Source: Alfred Znamierowski's World Encyclopedia of Flags, 1999.
Phil Nelson, 28 February 2000

As a very popular Colombian kids song says....
YELLOW is our gold
BLUE is our vast seas (oceans)
and RED is the blood that gave us our freedom... (from Spain)
S.C, 6 December 2000

A Colombian peace flag

[Flag of Colombia] image located by William Garrison, 1 December 2016

This is simply a makeshift flag that does not have proper official measures (notice the white stripes are added to an already existing
Colombian flag). You can see the same image here:
http://ia.tmgrup.com.tr/ (source). Picture caption reads: "A man holds a Colombian national flag with white stripes during a demo to demand the immediate endorsement of the new peace agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC guerrilla outside the Colombian Congress in Bogota, Nov. 30."

This was in support of the Peace Process and in spite of the electoral result in the recent Peace Referendum held on October 2, in which the majority disfavored the government's initiative and the signed agreement, the government then slightly amended this agreement on November 24, and then presented it to Congress for approval. On November 29, the Senate approved the deal 75-0 and the House of Representatives approved it the next day by a vote of 130-0, without the presence of the main opposition party, Centro Democrático in both of them. The government then proclaimed that yesterday was "D-Day" for the beginning of the implementation of all the respective measures in the agreement, while Farc said it hadn't.

As for the flag reported, there were other "Colombian peace flags" (if you will) that appeared, mainly on the days leading up to the recent Referendum, as seen here, mainly voting for approval of the Referendum,
("sí", yes):
- http://nationalinterest.org/files/main_images/Colombia%20Flag.jpg (source: http://nationalinterest.org)
- http://www.constitutionnet.org/sites/default/files/colombia_peace_process_july_cn.jpg (source: http://www.constitutionnet.org)
- http://www.telesurtv.net/...colombia_Reuters.jpg_1718483346.jpg (source: http://www.telesurtv.net)
- http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news_images/20161003/p03a.jpg (source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw)
- https://static.iris.net.co/semana/upload/images/2016/9/2/492215_1.jpg (source: http://www.semana.com)
- http://www.revistaelmetro.com/metroweb/images/si_paz_cartagena.jpg (source: http://www.revistaelmetro.com)
- http://cdn.colombia.com/sdi/2016/07/30/santos-promueve-el-si-en-el-plebiscito-508987.jpg (source: http://www.colombia.com)

Also, there were flags voting against the agreement ("no"):
- http://www.pazificonoticias.com/ (source: http://www.pazificonoticias.com/)
- https://static01.nyt.com/.../ramirezES/26ramirezES-master1050.jpg (source: http://www.nytimes.com)

Esteban Rivera, 2 December 2016