The green rectangle, which came to represent our nature, previously referred to the House of Bragança (the family of Dom Pedro I). Yellow, now a symbol of the country’s mineral wealth, was the color of the House of Lorena (of the Archduchess Dona Leopoldina, wife of Dom Pedro I). And the blue circle was the armillary sphere, also present in the Portuguese flag of the Empire. Now it indicates our starry sky.
The changes happened when the current flag was made, in 1889. It inherited the symbols of the imperial standard, but changed the meanings. It also incorporated the phrase “Ordem e Progresso”, which was inspired by a motto of positivism, a popular philosophical current at the time.
Positivism dictated that science was the only form of progress for modern society. The original phrase, coined by the positivist Augusto Comte, was “love as a principle, order below and progress above”.
Check out the meanings of 32 other flags from around the world below:
NETHERLANDS
It was the first country to break with medieval pennants, with shields of knights and kings. Prince William of Orange chose these colors to fight Spain in 1581. Legend has it that, instead of red, he wanted orange, but there was no fabric in the tone.
FRANCE
At the time of the French Revolution in 1789, the country’s city flag was red and blue. After the fall of the Bastille, these colors were interspersed with the white band (associated with royalty), indicating that the king had reconciled with the city.
ITALY
It also followed the French revolutionary insignia. But he won the green, which made up, with the white, the uniform of the civil militia of Milan. When the militia became the national guard, in 1796, it received the red.
DENMARK
The flag has a legendary origin: it would have fallen from the sky, after the prayers of King Valdemar II, during a battle against the Estonians, in the city of Lyndanisse, in 1219.
UK
It is the sum of the flags of its component countries:
ETHIOPIA
At the end of the 19th century, it was the only African country that resisted European colonization. Therefore, it influenced several neighbors when they gained independence in the 50s and 60s. Many of the flags added the black color to represent their people.