The history of the flag of the Czech Republic begins long before the founding of the modern state in 1993, when a decree was passed on the division of the country in two.
Czech Republic: flag and its original purpose
It is no secret that the current flag of the republic was borrowed from the state that existed since 1918 and was called Czechoslovakia. Initially, the combination of white and red was the flag of the Czech Republic. Photos of the modern version can be seen from above. But how did you come to him? At that time, new states were formed throughout Europe, and therefore the official symbolism often coincided. A similar incident happened with the Czechs: their flag was an exact copy of the Polish, and therefore it was necessary to come up with something.
The solution was found quite nontrivial: the canvas was diluted with a blue triangle, crashing into the white-red stripes on the left. This geometric figure symbolized the unity of the Slovak people with the Czechs, whose key colors were red and white. A similar model began to be used since 1920, but in 1939 the Czech Republic was attacked by Hitler. The flag was replaced by the Nazi version, and it was necessary to forget about it for several years, until 1945.
Symbols of the times of Nazi Germany
The former state flag of Czechoslovakia had to be forgotten, because the state fell into two parts in 1939, as Slovakia decided to enter the Axis. She got her own symbolism, but the Czechs had to be content with the imagination of German designers. As a result, the Czech flag was replaced with a canvas called the “flag of Bohemia and Moravia”. It was a tricolor made up of the same colors as Czechoslovak, but in a different sequence: white, red, blue (top to bottom). Thus, the state lost during this terrible period not only its flag, but even its name and independence.
Modern interpretation of color combinations
The Soviet era did not bring any changes to the significance of the Czechoslovak tricolor. However, the revolutionary period of the early nineties made many newly-formed states think about state symbols. Among them was the Czech Republic. They decided to leave the flag of the former republic, but redraw the meaning of the colors. Initially, the red and white canvas was the flag of Bohemia, which is its largest region. Thus, it was necessary to take into account the second important region - Moravia, which was represented by the blue triangle, which previously denoted the Slovak Republic.
Despite the fact that the official flag of the Czech Republic was approved only at the end of 1992, it has a rich history, which even included the period of oblivion from 1939 to 1945. Nevertheless, the symbolism was preserved and conveyed to the present, only slightly changing the meaning of the tricolor elements.