French Guiana Flag

French Guiana is an overseas territory of France and therefore flies the flag of France. The flag is tricolor, consisting of three vertical bands of equal proportions. The band on the hoist side is blue in color while the middle band is white and on the fly side is the red band. The flag is in the proportion of 2:3. The French flag was adopted by French Guiana in 2015 following the disbanding of both the superior Regional Council and the General Council to form the French Guiana Assembly.

The colors on the French Guiana’s flag, which is also the national flag of France, are the national colors of France. Blue and red are the colors of Paris and are associated with the Virgin Mary who is the patroness of France. Red and blue colors are also associated with Saint Denis and Saint Martin respectively. White was added to the flag to nationalize it. The three colors stand for freedom, equality, and brotherhood.

The flag of France was derived from the cockades that were in use during the French Revolution. The blue and red cockade was adopted on July 13, 1789, when Paris militia was formed and presented to King Louis XVI on July 17. Lafayette suggested that a white stripe be added to the cockade to nationalize it. On July 27, 1789, a tricolor cockade was adopted as part of the National Guard’s uniform. A red-white-blue flag was approved by the Constituent Assembly on October 24, 1790, while the order was reversed to blue-white-red on February 15, 1794.

Prior to the adoption of the current flag, different flags were hoisted in French Guiana. In 1901, the territory adopted a flag consisting of three horizontal colors of blue, red, and green with a brown boat full of gold. The blue band had the year 1643 on it while the green field had three gray flowers. In 2010, the General Council adopted a bicolor flag of green and yellow triangles with a five-pointed star on the border of the two colors. The green and yellow flag were replaced by the current flag of France in 2015.

This page was last modified on May 1st, 2018