National flags get all the attention, but a large number of the world's flags belong to places that are not countries. Dependencies and territories are politically attached to a sovereign state without being sovereign themselves, and most of them have designed a flag anyway.
What counts as a dependency or a territory
These regions have varying degrees of self-government, and their populations frequently have cultural and historical backgrounds distinct from the state they are attached to. They range from small islands to large, heavily populated regions. Some are what is left of colonial empires. Others ended up in the arrangement for their own particular reasons.
The Caribbean
The Caribbean has more of these territories than anywhere else, and their flags diverge sharply in what they choose to depict.
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, and its flag has five horizontal red and white stripes with a blue triangle on the hoist side containing a white star. The design is a mirror image of the Cuban flag, a deliberate nod to solidarity and a shared history of fighting colonial rule. That origin is why the flag still carries weight in arguments about the island's relationship with Washington.
Bermuda
Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory, puts the Union Jack in the upper left corner for the connection to the United Kingdom. On the right is Bermuda's coat of arms, with a red lion holding a shield that depicts a shipwreck. Few places choose a disaster as their central image, and Bermuda's maritime history is the reason it works.
The British Virgin Islands
The British Virgin Islands also carry the Union Jack as a British Overseas Territory. The distinguishing element is the coat of arms, which shows Saint Ursula holding a gold lamp surrounded by eleven more lamps, which stand for her eleven thousand virgin followers.
The Cayman Islands
The Cayman Islands, another British Overseas Territory, pair the Union Jack with a coat of arms containing a green turtle, a pineapple, and a shield with blue and white wavy lines for the sea. The turtle is for the islands' maritime history and the pineapple for hospitality.
The Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands, in the South Atlantic, put the Union Jack beside a coat of arms with a ram and a sailing ship. The ram is for sheep farming, a significant part of the islands' economy, and the ship for the islands' maritime past.
The Pacific
Pacific territories tend to reach further back than their colonial arrangements for their imagery.
Guam
Guam, an unincorporated territory of the United States, uses a dark blue field with a red border. The seal at the center shows the island's landscape with a proa (a traditional canoe) and a coconut tree, and the word "GUAM" in red letters. The imagery is Chamorro rather than American.
American Samoa
American Samoa, another unincorporated U.S. territory, has a blue field with a white triangle bordered in red. Inside the triangle an eagle clutches a war club and a fly whisk, both emblems of traditional Samoan authority. The eagle is American and what it is holding is not, which is a fairly literal picture of the arrangement.
French Polynesia
French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France, has two red horizontal bands with a white band between them. The white band carries a blue and white disc showing an outrigger canoe under a golden sun. The canoe is for Polynesian seafaring and the sun for life and energy.
New Caledonia
New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France, has three horizontal bands of blue, red, and green with a yellow disc in the center bearing a black flèche faîtière, a traditional Kanak totemic emblem. Blue is the sky and ocean, red the struggle for independence, green the land. Nothing on it is French.
European territories
Europe has its own dependencies, and their flags tend to argue about heritage rather than autonomy.
Gibraltar
Gibraltar, a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of Spain, has two horizontal bands of white and red. The upper white band holds a red castle with three towers, and a golden key hangs below it. The castle is for Gibraltar's role as a fortress and the key for its position as the "Key to the Mediterranean."
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man, a self-governing British Crown dependency, has a triskelion on a red background: three armored legs joined at the thigh and bent at the knee. The symbol goes back to the island's Celtic and Norse heritage and stands for strength and resilience. Unlike the British Overseas Territories above, it carries no Union Jack at all.
The Faroe Islands
The Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, have a flag called "Merkið": a red Nordic cross outlined in blue on a white field. The cross places the islands in the Nordic family, alongside Denmark rather than under it.
African and Indian Ocean territories
Mayotte
Mayotte, an overseas department and region of France in the Indian Ocean, puts the French Tricolor in the upper left corner. The rest is local: two red seahorses and a ylang-ylang flower, for the marine environment and the island's agriculture.
Réunion
Réunion, another French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, has no official flag recognized by the French government. Several unofficial ones circulate locally instead. The most popular has a blue field with a red, white, and yellow sunburst, standing for the island's volcanic origins and its mixed cultural heritage. An unofficial flag in common use is its own kind of statement about identity within the Republic.
Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha
These remote British Overseas Territories in the South Atlantic each have their own flag, and all three lean heavily on local wildlife. Saint Helena's has a Union Jack and a shield with a Saint Helena plover, a native bird, and a three-masted sailing ship. Ascension Island's has a Union Jack and a shield with green sea turtles and volcanic peaks. Tristan da Cunha's has a Union Jack and a shield with a Tristan rock lobster and an albatross.
Arctic and Antarctic territories
Greenland
Greenland, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, has a flag called "Erfalasorput" or "Aappalaartoq," meaning "our flag" or "the red one." It has two horizontal bands of white and red with a red and white disc slightly off-center. White is the ice and snow, red the sun and the warmth of Greenlanders, and the disc is the sun rising and setting, which in the Arctic is not a minor detail of the year.
French Southern and Antarctic Lands
The French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF) is a French overseas territory covering several island groups in the southern Indian Ocean and a portion of Antarctica. Its flag has a blue field with the French Tricolor in the upper left corner and five white stars in a circle to the right, one for each of the five districts. What it stands for is a French presence in those regions and the scientific work done there.
Run through the whole set and a pattern shows up. The territories with the strongest claim to a separate identity, Greenland, the Isle of Man, the Faroe Islands, New Caledonia, put nothing of the governing power on their flags. The ones with the closest ties keep the Union Jack or the Tricolor in the canton and load the rest of the space with local content. The flag is where the negotiation happens.
