The British origin of the characteristic national flag of the United States of America

The American flag, known as "Old Glory," is one of the most famous flags in the world and has a very unique design.

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With its blue canton and stars and stripes, the United States flag has a characteristic design that has been imitated by other flags, including those of Greece, Liberia, and the French region of Brittany. However, the origin of "Old Glory" is little known among the public, particularly the British origins of the flag of that great superpower. It should be noted that the United States adopted the first version of its current flag in 1777, one year after its Declaration of Independence.

The first official flag of the United States, adopted in 1777 and known as the "Betsy Ross," bore thirteen stars, representing the thirteen British colonies in North America that became the three founding states of the United States: Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Virginia.

At that time, there was another flag with a very similar design: that of the British East India Company. This organization was a private British company founded in 1600 to manage, as a monopoly, trade with the East Indies, as the Southeast Asian region was then known. This company became the largest company in the world at the time and acted as a de facto state, having its own army and enjoying considerable autonomy from the British Crown. Its flag then displayed the British Union Jack of 1707 in its canton, formed by the union of the flags of England (the St. George's Cross) and Scotland (the St. Andrew's Cross), and 13 bars (7 red and 6 white).

In 1775, the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies adopted a flag virtually identical to that of the British East India Company. With this flag, known as the "Continental Union Flag" or "Cambridge Flag" (after it was raised at George Washington's headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on January 2, 1776), the Thirteen Colonies sought to assert their autonomy and at the same time their loyalty to the British Crown, seeking a status similar to that of the aforementioned Company. It should be added that this was, in fact, the first flag of the United States, until the Betsy Ross was officially adopted in 1777.

The adoption of the Continental Union Flag by the Thirteen Colonies may have been an imitation of the flag of the British East India Company and may have also sought the support of that company for their autonomist cause against the British Crown, but it also had a powerful logistical reason: since 1707, British civilian vessels used the Red Ensign (or Red Duster), with the Union Flag in the canton and the rest entirely red. It was a flag that was available in large quantities in the Thirteen Colonies, and to make the Continental Union Flag it was enough to sew six white stripes to the Red Ensign.

Beginning with the "Betsy Ross" declaration, the United States flag has changed as new states joined the Union. The current flag was adopted on July 4, 1960, after Hawaii joined the United States as the 50th state (Alaska had become the 49th a year earlier).

Interestingly, the US flag is not the only descendant of the British East India Company's flag. The Malaysian flag, very similar to that of the US, is also considered the heir to the flag of that Company, which was the de facto political power that managed Malaysian territory between 1600 and 1874. The current Malaysian flag was adopted by the Federation of Malaya in 1950 (with slight differences) and became the official flag of Malaysia on September 16, 1963. But the story does not end there.

Between 1292 and 1527, the present-day territory of Malaysia was part of the Majapahit Empire. Historians disagree on the flag of that empire, but it is believed to have consisted of red and white bars, similar to the current Malayan flag, but without a canton. Today, the Indonesian Navy uses this flag as a cutwater flag, in memory of the Majapahit Empire. Perhaps the British East India Company took this flag as the basis for its flag, adding the British canton?

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Main photo: Paul Weaver. Images: DevinCook / Yaddah / Hoshie / Dbenbenn.