Proposed national flags that never made the final cut

A few weeks ago I did a video about the worst proposed flags that were never used, so it seemed only right that I also do one now about the best proposed flags that were also never used. Flag proposals come necessarily at times of flag changes. Sometimes these take place at moments of regime change in countries, for instance when one becomes a republic and stops being a monarchy, just like what happened with Portugal. Sometimes a change in the territory takes place and the new territory needs to be represented as was the case with the United States and it can also be a moment of the creation of a new country entirely or just a random person who decided to redesign a country's flag for whatever reason. In this video we're going to take a look at a few of those best proposals. A quick disclaimer the best label is given by me it's just my opinion on them which you can of course rightfully disagree with. Starting with the ones on the thumbnail, Portugal. A few days ago I was going through some of these old postcards which are from the first Portuguese Republic. It lasted from 1910 to around 1928. Throughout some of them I found some of the proposed flags at the time, considered as candidates to replace the old monarchy flag before the current one was chosen. Now most of them we've seen before, I even mentioned them in previous videos, but I found a new one that I think I'd never seen at least like this and these tones. I'm usually not a fan of flags modeling themselves off of other countries' flags, I get it from tricolors, but when there's specific displays like this US one, not so much. However, and of course I may be biased here, I absolutely love this one. I don't know if it's the old paper and sort of pastel tones of the red and green, but those colors alternated with white stripes look so cool to me. The top left canton is also a perfect place for the armillary sphere and the national coat of arms. I'm only not sure what the stars are meant to represent. It would also have maintained the blue color from the monarchy flag on the canton. And if they were trying to implement a republic, why not model their flag off another republic, the US? It was designed by a man called Joaquim Augusto Fernandes in 1911, but was never adopted. Next is Belarus. Belarus' flag today is this one. It's the same as the one they used back in Soviet times as a member of the USSR minus the hammer and sickle and precisely because of that it seems outdated. The only cool element is the left vertical stripe which resembles a roknik, a traditional decorative pattern of the region. However, in 1918 the first modern independent state of Belarus was created as the Belarusian Democratic Republic and they used this white flag with a red horizontal stripe along the center. Its coat of arms was also this one, a red shield with a white knight on it, perhaps St. George, on his shield is the cross of Lorraine which I believe we also see in the emblems and flags of Slovakia and Hungary. Both the colors and shield were based on those of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of which they were partially a part of in medieval times. More recently, in 1992, a proposed flag change took place, putting forth the design of a Nordic cross in red on a white field with a coat of arms on top. Even more recently, in 2016, the design was changed to include the roknik pattern as the vertical stripe of the Nordic Cross. It is connected to those who support the democratic movement in the country and fight for a change in regime. All the way in the Caucasus is Armenia. Armenia's flag today is this one, a horizontal tricolor of red, blue and gold. It's not bad, but in my opinion it could be even cooler if they had chosen to go with another proposed flag. Historically, Armenia has had some pretty incredible flags from the Artaxiad dynasty standard to the Arsacid one or the flag of the Armenian kingdom in the 12th century. In 1990 they adopted this one but at their latest moment of independence they could have chosen an even older flag. This flag was presented in 1918 when the first republic of Armenia was created. Its independence was short-lived and by 1920 they became a part of the Soviet Union and Turkey but at the time, Despite already using the modern flag, an Armenian painter called Martiros Sarian, who by the way features in one of their bills, designed this flag. Supposedly based on the colors and designs of traditional Armenian fabrics and carpets. A six colored, horizontal striped flag, red, orange, yellow, green, indigo and purple, sort of in a rainbow sequence. And there's so many things that are cool about it. The unique choice of colors, let alone the amount of colors used, but also the pattern. Not only is it unique, but also it's irregular. The thickness of the stripes isn't symmetrical. It goes long, short, long, and then short, long, short. Sadly, his design was rejected. Bosnia and Herzegovina is next. Before that, I have to take a minute to thank today's sponsor, Raid Shadow Legends. For most of you, this sponsor needs no introduction. Raid Shadow Legends is a super hit mobile game played by over 80 million players worldwide. It's completely free to play which you can do casually to relax or competitively to be the best. It has great graphics doing what other mobile games don't which is to bring PC and console level graphics to your mobile device. With over 650 unique champions that you can combine and customize differently to either face off a ton of really cool bosses or take on real players in PvP battles. To celebrate the game's 4 year anniversary, here are 4 of my favorite champions, Galick but also the Sister Militant, the Apothecary and Red Deer. There's endless content with new champions and updates every month. In fact, Raid's 4th anniversary is finally here and because of it, they are offering a ton of free gifts promo codes events and a brand new fusion event where you guys can get your hands on an anniversary themed legendary champion but there's more new players can use my link or scan the qr code on screen now and you will get a free starter pack with this cool in-game loot so if you want try out Raid: Shadow Legends today and thank you to them for sponsoring this video. The flag of Bosnia today is this one and while it's pretty cool and unique being inspired by the old flag of the Bosnian Kingdom of the 14th century and sort of representing the country's shape it has a big issue for me. These have stars. I know this is really not a big deal but it bothers me a lot that it seems the flag was cut off of something and that parts of it are missing and throughout time at least a couple different flag proposals have been presented that I think would significantly improve their national flag. This one, which is based off both the Kingdom flag and the Bosnian Republic flag of 1992, which was a white field with a blue coat of arms. Here they added two blue vertical stripes on each side as well. Or this one, using the fleur-de-lis elements from the Kingdom flag and having a blue triangle joined with a white one that has red stripes. Both of these were presented in 1992, before the Dayton Agreement, none were implemented. there was also this crazy futuristic looking flag proposal in 1997. Let's quickly go to Australia and New Zealand. I talked about both of these in the worst flag proposals because they had some awful ones but to be fair there's also some pretty good ones. I do think it's important for both of them to change their flag. As sovereign state it makes absolutely no sense that they keep the British colonial ensigns in modern times. I get that they perhaps want to keep clear that their cultural affinity is with Europe. But still, there's a few great proposals for Australia. Many newspapers and TV programs there have held contests to redesign the flag. This one, which was a finalist in the Daily Telegraph's contest, is good. This one from A Current Affair, too, as well as this one, called the Golden Wattle, depicting a local flower. In New Zealand, the official government's contest that led to the failed flag change referendum produced some incredible flags such as the Korufin, the Embrace, the White and Black Fern, and the Tukutuku flag. Further north is China. In 1949, a ridiculous number of flag proposals were presented to become the national flag of the New People's Republic. At least 38 were presented with the winning one being proposal number 32 which was adapted by removing the hammer and sickle then becoming the national flag of China up to today. However, many other proposals looked great. Mao Zedong's own proposal was cool, proposal number 5 as well or proposal 48 which seems like kind of a communist roman empire but still looks very good. Back in Europe we have the very aesthetically pleasing trend of Nordic flags however there are two Nordic countries which I believe could further improve their national flags. Finland's white and blue Nordic cross is great but look at this fantastic horizontal bicolor of white and blue as well with the beautiful red and gold coat of arms in the top left corner. The Nordic crosses are great and it's cool that almost all Nordic regions use them but it also takes a lot of character out of their flags save for the color difference. This specific flag was proposed by Zacharias Topelius, a Finnish author, journalist and historian. He is said to have presented his design proposal in around 1862. Even though it wasn't adopted it is said to have inspired the current flag maybe in the color choices. Another Another Nordic country that could perhaps have an even cooler flag is Norway. In 1821, the supreme legislator of Norway, called Storting, decided to choose a flag for the newly independent country, taking into consideration various proposals. The whole story around this flag contest and choice is very interesting, with the king initially being opposed to it, if you want I can make a whole video about it. But one of the proposed flags, proposal number 8 to be precise, was this one, red and blue with some white and gold features depicting the Norwegian lion in the center. It presented a cool template unlike almost any other flag in the world. It was presented by Christian Magnus Folsen, a Norwegian statesman and historian, however his proposal ended up not being chosen. Speaking of Norway, its island territory of Svalbard also has a super cool proposed flag, first presented in 1930 but never officially adopted. It consists of the lion from the Norwegian coat of arms too, on a background of blue and white, possibly symbolizing the arctic landscape of the archipelago. All the way in Asia we have Malaysia. Malaysia's flag is cool but it's a little too similar to that of the US. Now I know literally at the start of this video I complimented that Portuguese proposal that also follows the same template, but the Malaysian one is even equal in the main colors. Even though the similarity is seemingly coincidental, they could perhaps switch it up a little. One proposed flag was inspired in the regional flag of Johor, apparently in 1949 they also considered various proposals for a flag change and these two were pretty cool. They still follow the same design logic and even the same colors, but presented differently. And in a way that I think best differentiates them from other countries' flags. And finally for this video, Tajikistan. The flag of Tajikistan is okay, but save its central emblem, it could kind of be the flag of any other country in the world, even being similar to some like Hungary. The modern flag is an improvement on the Soviet one, don't get me wrong, but it could still be better. In fact, in 1992, just after the USSR was dissolved, other flag proposals were presented. Proposal 1 was okay, but in my opinion proposal 2 was really good. Two colors, two thirds green and one third red at the bottom, in the center, the national emblem in gold. It even has a more modern look to it. And it looks super unique. So I think they should really consider revisiting that idea. An honorable mention to Luxembourg which has a pretty boring horizontal tricolor, very similar to that of the Netherlands which at one time ruled them, only using a lighter tone of red and blue. However, their civil ensign since 1972 is so-called a field of white and blue stripes with a red lion on top. It keeps the colors, yet uses a unique template and design. I know it's a little medieval with a huge lion, but they should definitely review their flag and use a new version of this. Countries that need to change their flag would also be a good video idea. So, those are a few of the, from my perspective, best flag proposals ever made. Do you agree or do you think the current flags of those countries are better? Also, what are some other good or bad flag proposals that you know about? Let me know in the comments. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for more general knowledge.