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:
“The History of the world is not the theatre of happiness. Periods of happiness are blank pages in it, for they are periods of harmony—periods when the antithesis is in abeyance.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“Psychology keeps trying to vindicate human nature. History keeps undermining the effort.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)