Flag of Ethiopia

Flag of Ethiopia
The flag of Ethiopia (የኢትዮጵያ ሰንደቅ ዐላማ) is the national flag of Ethiopia. It consists of a green, yellow, and red tricolour with the national emblem, a golden pentagram on a blue disc, superimposed at the center. While the colors green, yellow, and red in combination held symbolic importance since at least the early 17th century, the modern tricolour was first adopted on 11 October 1897 by Menelik II, and the present flag on 31 October 1996.

The colors of green, yellow and red were used for the flag of the Ethiopian Empire in 1914. On 11 October 1897, a year after Ethiopia decisively defeated the Kingdom of Italy at the Battle of Adwa, emperor Menelik II ordered the three pennants combined in a rectangular tricolour from top to bottom of red, yellow, and green with the first letter of his own name (the Amharic letter "ም") on the central stripe. The letter of Menelik's name was removed from the flag after his death in 1913. For unknown reasons, the colour order was flipped - with green on top, red on the bottom, and the yellow remaining in place. The flag's tricolour scheme has existed since the early 19th century, and the colours red, yellow, and green carried special importance prior to that. To commemorate its adoption in 1897, Ethiopia celebrates Flag Day on the first Monday of the month of Tikimt (September–October).

The royal flag often featured the emblem of a Lion of Judah, a crowned lion carrying a cross centered in the banner's yellow midsection. The flag is understood to be a link between the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the peoples, and the nation that was united. The processional cross carried by the lion was the former flag or symbol of Ethiopia, and has likewise been in use since at least the early 17th century. Whilst red is currently featured at the bottom of the horizontal tricolour, this was reversed until the mid-19th century. What the colors symbolise varies depending on point of view. However, generally, red represents the blood spilled in defense of Ethiopia; yellow represents peace and harmony between Ethiopia's various ethnic and religious groups; and green is said to symbolise hope, or the land and its fertility. The colors had historically been used by the Ethiopian church prior to their adoption as the colors of the state for unknown reasons, but likely due to them being easy to produce and common in the Ethiopian landscape. Two French travelers in the 19th century, Ferret and Joseph Galinier, said "red, green and yellow are the main colours of manuscript illuminations."

Upon gaining independence from colonial rule, several newly-established countries in Africa adopted these three colors in homage to Ethiopia's resistance against foreign occupation. When adopted by Pan-Africanist polities and organisations for their activities, the colours are often referred to as the Pan-African colours.

National flag
Flag of Ethiopia
Country - Ethiopia

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Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east and northeast, Kenya to the south, South Sudan to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. Ethiopia has a total area of 1100000 km2. , it is home to around 113.5 million inhabitants, making it the 13th-most populous country in the world, the 2nd-most populous in Africa after Nigeria, and the most populated landlocked country on Earth. The national capital and largest city, Addis Ababa, lies several kilometres west of the East African Rift that splits the country into the African and Somali tectonic plates.

Anatomically modern humans emerged from modern-day Ethiopia and set out to the Near East and elsewhere in the Middle Paleolithic period. Southwestern Ethiopia has been proposed as a possible homeland of the Afroasiatic language family. In 980 BCE, the Kingdom of D'mt extended its realm over Eritrea and the northern region of Ethiopia, while the Kingdom of Aksum maintained a unified civilization in the region for 900 years. Christianity was embraced by the kingdom in 330, and Islam arrived by the first Hijra in 615. After the collapse of Aksum in 960, a variety of kingdoms, largely tribal confederations, existed in the land of Ethiopia. The Zagwe dynasty ruled the north-central parts until being overthrown by Yekuno Amlak in 1270, inaugurating the Ethiopian Empire and the Solomonic dynasty, claimed descent from the biblical Solomon and Queen of Sheba under their son Menelik I. By the 14th century, the empire grew in prestige through territorial expansion and fighting against adjacent territories; most notably, the Ethiopian–Adal War (1529–1543) contributed to fragmentation of the empire, which ultimately fell under a decentralization known as Zemene Mesafint in the mid-18th century. Emperor Tewodros II ended Zemene Mesafint at the beginning of his reign in 1855, marking the reunification and modernization of Ethiopia.
Neighbourhood - Country
  •  Djibouti 
  •  Eritrea 
  •  Kenya 
  •  Somalia 
  •  South Sudan 
  •  Sudan