The State of Eritrea

The National Flag of Eritrea

During the scramble for Africa, and after the construction of the Suez Canal, the Italians sought to expand their influence in Africa, and settled on Eritrea. In 1890, Eritrea was declared an Italian colony, who governed Eritrea until 1941 when the British expelled the Italians. The British took over the running of Eritrea, and continued to do so after the war under a UN mandate.

The mandate expired, and a new resolution was adopted, calling for the federation of Eritrea and Ethiopia. During its federation with Ethiopia, Eritrea finally gained a flag. A simple light coloured banner, with a green wreath at the centre. Within the wreath is a green olive branch.

However, the flag was scrapped in 1962 when Ethiopia formally annexed Eritrea and made it the 14th province. Ethiopia began a major process of turning Eritrea into Ethiopia, with the banning of local languages, and the compulsory teaching of Ethiopian languages in school. The lack of regard for the Eritrean people led to the formation of EPLF who began to wage a war of independence on Ethiopia. A bloody war that raged for 30 years, until 1991, when under a UN mandate,the Eritrean voted hugely in favour if independence once more.

The new flag for the nation was revealed in 1993, once the nation had finally declared it independence from Ethiopia. This flag was copied from the flag of the EPLF. The new flag featured a large red triangle. The triangle lay along the hoist of the flag, and stretched all the way across to the other side of the flag. Above the triangle is green, and below is blue. In the triangle, next to the hoist, is the nations symbol. Taken from the 1950's flag, a gold wreath surrounds a gold olive branch. The only difference between the national flag, and the flag of the EPLF was that on the EPLF's flag, it had a gold star, rather than the golden wreath.

The flag was altered in 1995 when its dimensions where stretched from 2:3, to 1:2. The flags colours, like so many, do have meanings. The green stands for the fertility of the land, the blue stands for the ocean, and the red stands for the blood spilt during the fight for independence.