A triband flag is a flag made up of three stripes of colour which can run either horizontally or vertically. Each band is often of the same width as the other stripes like the Austrian flag:
But this doesn’t have to be the case, as with the flag of Colombia in which the yellow stripe takes up the top half of the flag and a band of blue and red take up an equal amount of the bottom half:
According to the CIA World Factbook, the Dutch flag may be the oldest triband flag in the world. The Dutch flag is currently bright vermillion, white and blue, but the vermillion is said to have originally been orange, being the colour of the coat of arms of the Prince of Orange. It is also a horizontal triband:
Triband flags have an association with republicanism which came about with the Dutch gaining independence from Spain in the middle of the 17th century and establishing this flag.
The Dutch flag is also a Tricolor meaning that the three bands of colour are all different.
Famous Tricolor flags
Possibly the most famous of the tricolor flags is the French flag which is known in French as Le Tricolore and was adopted during the French Revolution. It has vertical bands comprised of blue white and red:
The Indian flag is known as the Tiranga which also means Tricolor. It is the colours of safron, white and green:
It has the Ashoka Chakra in its center.
Triband flags containing Symbols
A number of other triband flags contain symbols such as the Croatian flag which contains the Croatian coat of arms containing a red and white checkerboard and the shields of Croatia and the regions of Dubrovnik, Dalmatia, Istria and Slavonia:
The flags of Cameroon, Ghana and Sengal are tribands of the pan African colours with a star in the centre.
The flag of Cameroon is vertically striped and has a yellow star:
The flag of Ghana is horizontally striped in the Pan-African colours and has the Black Star of Africa in the centre:
Senegal’s flag is also vertically striped with Pan African colours and contains a green star and was also inspired by the French Tricolor:
There are numerous other triband and tricolour flags. You can practice your flags of the world here!