History
The Vatican traditionally used a yellow and red flag, the traditional colors of the Roman Senate and the Roman people.
In 1808 Pope Pius VII ordered the Vatican's Noble Guard and other troops to replace the yellow and red colors with yellow and white. The only exception were the troops that were serving in the French armies under the command of General Sestio A. F. Miollis, who was allowed to keep using the old colors.
In 1824 the Vatican's merchant navy used a white a yellow flag, but they were set in diagonal. In 1848 tri-color ties (white, red and green) were added to the merchant navy.
In 1849 Pope Pius IX returned from his exile in Gaeta and ordered the colors to be disposed vertically and replaced the ties with the papal coat of arms.
On February 11, 1929, Pope Pius XI signed the Lateran Treaty with Italy, recognizing the current flag as the legal flag of a foreign state, thus protecting it under Article 299 of the Italian Criminal Code. It was ratified by the Italian parliament in June 7, 1929.
Read more about this topic: Flag Of Vatican City
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Systematic philosophical and practical anti-intellectualism such as we are witnessing appears to be something truly novel in the history of human culture.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“Let us not underrate the value of a fact; it will one day flower in a truth. It is astonishing how few facts of importance are added in a century to the natural history of any animal. The natural history of man himself is still being gradually written.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)