The Roots of Red: A Look at Flags Featuring the Color Red

Red carries more weight in flag design than any other color, and it has carried it for a long time. Historically it has been tied to power and rebellion. It stands in for blood, valor and sacrifice, usually the lives lost in a fight for freedom.

Some of that comes down to how the eye works. Red is stimulating and hard to ignore, so it draws attention before anything else on the cloth does. A country choosing red is choosing the loudest thing available.

Where red turns up

Afghanistan's flag carries red in a band, standing for the sacrifice of martyrs and for battle and bravery.

Argentina's flag is dominated by sky blue, but red runs through the country's earlier ensigns, tied to revolution and struggle.

China's flag is almost entirely red, where it means revolution and unity.

Switzerland, better known for neutrality than for revolution, uses red as its field.

And Canada sets its maple leaf against red bars, where the color stands for hope and prosperity.

The same red, different meanings

A single color can mean opposite things depending on where you are standing. In Western cultures red often reads as a warning, the color of "stop." In China it brings prosperity and good fortune.

The political range is just as wide. On some flags red means communism. On others it means nothing more specific than national pride. Canada's red maple leaf and Turkey's crescent are both instantly readable, and they are not saying remotely the same thing.

Red as the color of revolt

Red flags were raised during revolutions as signs of defiance, and they still turn up at protests for the same reason. That continuity is the most durable thing about the color: whatever else it means on a national flag, it also means a crowd in the street.