1868; 157 years ago (1868) (original design) 1939; 86 years ago (1939) (checkerboard shield added) December 21, 1990; 34 years ago (1990-12-21) (current form) June 25, 1991; 34 years ago (1991-06-25) (official adoption as national independent flag)
Design
A horizontal tricolor of red, white, and blue anchored by the national coat of arms.
This flag has been continuously in use since 1868 usingpan-Slavic colors with thewhite and red checkboard shield added from 1939; which was then replaced by ared star during communist rule before the modern iteration of the Croat flag was adopted in 1990, one year before its independence.
The red-white-blue tricolor has been used as the Croatian flag since 1848, and thepan-Slavic colors are widely associated withromantic nationalism. While theBanovina of Croatia existed within theKingdom of Yugoslavia, it had a similar flag without the modern crown above theCroatian checkerboard. After theKingdom of Yugoslavia was invaded and Croatia became theIndependent State of Croatia, the crown was removed and a "U" was placed at the top left of the flag. Also, the first field of the Croatian checkerboard was white. AfterNazi Germany was superseded by theSFR Yugoslavia,Croatia's flag had a five-pointed red star with a yellow border in place of the coat of arms. The star was replaced by the coat of arms in May 1990, shortly after the first multiparty elections. The current flag and the coat of arms were officially adopted on December 21, 1990, about six (de facto) or ten (de jure) months before the proclamation of independence from Yugoslavia and a day before the Constitution of Croatia on December 22, 1990.[citation needed]
The national flag of Croatia is represented as theUnicodeemoji sequenceU+1F1ED🇭REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER H andU+1F1F7🇷REGIONAL INDICATOR SYMBOL LETTER R.[3]
Hrvatska pošta released into circulation two commemorativepostage stamps featuring the motifs of the installation flag ofBan Josip Jelačić from 1848 and the contemporary Croatian flag on Croatian flag day (June 5).[5]