The French Revolution The Italian tricolour, like other
tricolour flags, is inspired by the
French one, introduced by the
revolution in 1790 on
French Navy warships, and is symbolic of the renewal perpetrated by the origins of
Jacobinism. Shortly after the
French revolutionary events, the ideals of social innovation began to spread widely on the basis of the advocacy of the
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, including in Italy, and subsequently political innovation with the first patriotic ferments addressed to the national
self-determination that later led to the
Italian unification on the
Italian peninsula. For this reason, the French blue, white and red flag became the first reference of the Italian Jacobins and subsequently a source of inspiration for the creation of an Italian identity flag. On 12 July 1789, two days before the
storming of the Bastille, the revolutionary journalist
Camille Desmoulins, while hailing the Parisian crowd to revolt, asked the protesters what colour to adopt as a symbol of the French Revolution, proposing green, a symbol of
hope or the
blue of the
American Revolution, a symbol of
freedom and
democracy. The protesters replied "The green! The green! We want green cockades!" Desmoulins then seized a green leaf from the ground and pointed it to the hat as a distinctive sign of the revolutionaries. The French tricolour cockade was then completed on 17 July 1789 with the addition of white, the colour of the
House of Bourbon, in deference to King
Louis XVI of France, who still ruled despite the violent revolts that raged in the country; the French monarchy was
abolished on 10 August 1792. , on which the
national colours of Italy were based in 1789 The first documented use of
Italian national colours is dated 21 August 1789. In the historical archives of the
Republic of Genoa it is reported that eyewitnesses had seen some demonstrators hanging a
red, white and green cockade on their clothes. The Italian gazettes of the time had created confusion about the facts of French Revolution, especially on the replacement of green with blue, reporting that the French tricolour was green, white and red. When the correct information on the chromatic composition of the French tricolour arrived in Italy, the Italian Jacobins decided to keep green instead of blue, because it represented nature and therefore metaphorically, also
natural rights, or
social equality and
freedom, both principles dear to them. The red, white and green cockade then reappeared several years later on 13–14 November 1794 worn by a group of students of the
University of Bologna, led by Luigi Zamboni and Giovanni Battista De Rolandis who attempted to plot a popular riot to topple the Catholic government of
Bologna, a city which was part of the
Papal States at the time. Zamboni and De Rolandis defined themselves as "patriots" and wore tricolour cockades to signal they were inspired by Jacobin revolutionary ideals, but modified them also to distinguish themselves from the French cockade. The red, white and green cockade appeared, after the events of Bologna, during
Napoleon's entry into
Milan, which took place on 15 May 1796. These cockades, having the typical circular shape, possessed red on the outside, green on an intermediate position, and white on the centre. These ornaments were worn by the rioters even during the religious ceremonies officiated inside the
Milan Cathedral as thanks for the arrival of Napoleon, who was seen, at least initially, as a liberator. The tricolour cockades then became one of the official symbols of the Milanese National Guard, which was founded on 20 November 1796, and then spread elsewhere along the
Italian peninsula. The patriots began to call it "
Italian cockade" making it become one of the
symbols of the country. On the document the term "green" was subsequently crossed and replaced by "blue", the colour that forms – together with white and red – the French flag. On this document, with reference to its
war flag, which followed the French tricolour and which was proposed to Napoleon by the Milanese patriots, it is reported that this military unit would have had a red, white and green banner, colours formerly used by Milanese National Guard as well as on the cockades. In a ceremony at the
Piazza del Duomo on 16 November 1796, a
military flag was presented to the Lombard Legion. The Lombard Legion was therefore the first Italian military department to equip itself, as a banner, with a tricolour flag. , considered the "father of the Italian flag" For having proposed the green, white and red tricolour flag, Giuseppe Compagnoni is considered the "father of the Italian flag". The congress decision to adopt a green, white and red tricolour flag was then greeted by a jubilant atmosphere, such was the enthusiasm of the delegates, and by a peal of applause. The adoption of the Italian flag by a sovereign Italian state, the Cispadane Republic, was inspired by this Bolognese banner, linked to a municipal reality and therefore still having a purely local scope, and to the previous military banners of the Lombard Legion and Italian Legion. In particular, the Italian Legion was formed by soldiers coming from
Emilia and
Romagna. The flag of the Cispadane Republic was a horizontal square with red uppermost and, at the heart of the white
fess, an emblem composed of a garland of laurel decorated with a trophy of arms and four arrows, representing the four provinces that formed the Republic. In France, due to the Revolution, the flag went from having a "dynastic" and "military" meaning to a "national" one, and this concept, still unknown in Italy, was transmitted by the French to the Italians. '', which later became the council hall of the municipality of
Reggio Emilia, where the Italian flag was born on 7 January 1797 The Cispadane Republic and the Transpadane Republic merged in 1797 into the
Cisalpine Republic (1797–1802) and adopted the vertical square tricolour without badge in 1798. Originally the colours of the flag of the Cisalpine Republic were arranged horizontally, with green at the top, but on 11 May 1798, the Grand Council of the newborn State chose, as the national banner, an Italian tricolour with the colours arranged vertically. At the formal celebration of the birth in the new republic, which took place on 9 July in Milan, 300,000 people took part, including ordinary citizens, French soldiers and representatives of the major municipalities of the republic. The event was characterised by a riot of tricolour flags and cockades. On this occasion, Napoleon solemnly gave to the military units of the newborn republic, after having reviewed them, their tricolour banners. The flag of the Cisalpine Republic was maintained until 1802, when it was renamed the
Napoleonic Italian Republic (1802–1805), and a new flag was adopted, this time with a red field carrying a green square within a white
lozenge; the
presidential standard of Italy in use since 14 October 2000 was inspired by this flag. In the same year, after Napoleon had crowned himself as the first
French Emperor, the Italian Republic was transformed into the first
Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (1805–1814), or
Italico, under his direct rule. The flag of the Kingdom of Italy was that of the Republic in rectangular form,
charged with the golden Napoleonic eagle. This remained in use until the fall of Napoleon in 1814.
Italian unification The revolutions of the 19th century (1848), of which one of the symbols was the tricolour With the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the
absolutist monarchical regimes, the Italian tricolour went underground, becoming the symbol of the patriotic ferments that began to spread in Italy and the symbol which united all the efforts of the Italian people towards freedom and independence. In the
Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, a state dependent on the
Austrian Empire born after the fall of Napoleon, those who exhibited the Italian tricolour were subject to the
death penalty. The Austrians' objective was in fact, quoting the textual words of Emperor
Franz Joseph I of Austria: Between 1820 and 1861, a sequence of events led to the
independence and unification of Italy (except for
Veneto and the
province of Mantua,
Lazio,
Trentino-Alto Adige and
Julian March, known as
Italia irredenta, which were united with the rest of Italy in 1866 after the
Third Italian War of Independence, in 1870 after the
capture of Rome, and in 1918 after
World War I respectively); this period of Italian history is known as the
Risorgimento. The Italian tricolour waved for the first time in the history of the
Risorgimento on 11 March 1821 in the
Cittadella of Alessandria, during the
revolutions of the 1820s, after the oblivion caused by the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes. in 1848 The green, white and red flag reappeared during the
revolutions of 1830, mainly due to
Ciro Menotti, the patriot who started the rebellion in Italy. Menotti, in particular, argued that the best form of state for a united Italy was the monarchy with a sovereign chosen by a national congress. The main points of this idea were Rome as the capital of Italy and the tricolour flag as a national banner. On 5 February 1831, during the Forlì uprisings, the patriot Teresa Cattani wrapped herself in the tricolour flag during the assault on the building that was the seat of the
Legation of Romagna, challenging the shots of the papal soldiers. In 1831, the tricolour was chosen by
Giuseppe Mazzini as the emblem of
Young Italy. An original flag of Young Italy is kept at the Museum of the Risorgimento and Mazzinian institute in
Genoa. From 1833 to 1834, the symbolism of the tricolour spread more and more along the Italian peninsula, starting from northern and central Italy. Mazzini, regarding the reason why the Italian patriots had participated in the uprisings of 1830–1831, said: The Italian flag also spread among political exiles, becoming the symbol of the struggle for independence and the claim to have more liberal constitutions. In 1834 the tricolour was adopted by the rioters who tried to invade
Savoy, while the tricolour flag of Young Italy was brought to
South America in 1835 by
Giuseppe Garibaldi during his exile. during the
First Italian War of Independence (1848–1849). It is displayed at the
Royal Armoury of Turin. The Italian flag was also waved during the uprisings of 1837 in
Sicily, of 1841 in
Abruzzo and of 1843 in
Romagna. In 1844, a tricolour of Young Italy accompanied the
Bandiera brothers in their failed attempt to raise the population of the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. The patriots following the two brothers wore a uniform consisting of a blue and green shirt, white trousers, red handguards, a red and green collar, a red leather belt and a cap with an
Italian tricolour cockade pinned. Italian tricolours waved, challenging the authorities, who had decreed the ban, also on the occasion of the commemoration of the revolt of the Genoese quarter of Portoria against the
Habsburg occupiers during the
War of the Austrian Succession. During this event, which took place on 10 December 1847 in Genoa at the square of the
santuario della Nostra Signora di Loreto of the Genoese district of Oregina, by
Goffredo Mameli and
Michele Novaro played for the first time in history; it would become the Italian
national anthem from 1946. , in a verse, quotes the Italian flag: These verses, which can be read in the second verse, recall the hope that Italy, still divided into the
pre-unification states, would be united in a single nation, gathering under a single flag. Starting from this period the
strawberry tree plant began to be considered
a national symbol of Italy due to the green leaves, white flowers and red berries, which recall the colours of the Italian flag. The strawberry tree is the
national tree of
Italy. As the arms,
blazoned gules a cross argent, mixed with the white of the flag, it was
fimbriated azure, blue being the
dynastic colour, although this does not conform to the heraldic
rule of tincture. The rectangular civil and state variants were adopted in 1851. A makeshift tricolour consisting of
redshirts, green displays and a white sheet was hoisted on the flagpole of the ship that brought
Giuseppe Garibaldi back to Italy from South America shortly after the outbreak of the First Italian War of Independence. The patriots who had gathered at the
port of Genoa to welcome her return gave
Anita Garibaldi, in front of 3,000 people, a tricolour to be given to Giuseppe Garibaldi so that he could plant it on Lombard soil. The
Grand Duchy of Tuscany in the act of granting the constitution (17 February 1848) did not change the national banner ("The State retains its flag and its colours") but later granted the Tuscan militias, by decree, the use of a tricolour scarf next to the symbols of the Grand Duchy (25 March 1848). The Grand Duke, following the pressure of the Tuscan patriots, then adopted the tricolour flag also as a state banner and as a military banner for the troops sent to help Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia. Similar measures were adopted by the
Duchy of Parma and Piacenza and by the
Duchy of Modena and Reggio. in
Venice (1848), event that was characterised by a waving of tricolour flags The flag of the Constitutional
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a white field charged with the coats of arms of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Two Sicilies, and Granada, was modified by
Ferdinand II through the addition of a red and green border. This flag lasted from 3 April 1848 until 19 May 1849. The Provisional Government of Sicily, which lasted from 12 January 1848 to 15 May 1849 during the
Sicilian Revolution, adopted the Italian tricolour, defaced with the trinacria, or
triskelion. The
Republic of San Marco, proclaimed independent in 1848 by the
Austrian Empire, also adopted the tricolour. The flags that they adopted marked the link to Italian independence and unification efforts. The former, the Italian tricolour undefaced, and the latter, charged with the winged lion of St. Mark, from the flag of the
Republic of Venice (
maritime republic which existed from 697
AD until 1797 AD), on a white
canton. A chronicler of the time described the final moments of the subsequent capitulation of the Republic of San Marco by the Austrian troops, which took place on 22 August 1849: The tricolour flag of 1848 that greeted the expulsion of the Austrians from Venice is kept in the Museum of the Risorgimento and the Venetian 19th century. in
Piazza del Popolo (1848) in
Rome among a profusion of tricolour flags In 1849, the
Roman Republic, formed following the revolt against the
Papal State that dethroned the
Pope, adopted as its national banner a green, white and red flag with a
republican Roman eagle at the tip of the pole. This lasted for four months, while the Papal States of the Church was in abeyance. The Roman Republic resisted until 4 July 1849, when it was capitulated by the French Army. The troops from beyond the Alps, as a last act, entered the municipality of Rome where the last members of the republican assembly not yet captured were barricaded. Their secretary Quirico Filopanti surrendered wearing a tricolour scarf. The tricolour also flew over the barricades of the
Ten Days of Brescia, a revolt of the citizens of the Lombard city against the Austrian Empire, and in many other centres such as
Varese,
Gallarate,
Como,
Melegnano,
Cremona,
Monza,
Udine,
Trento,
Verona,
Rovigo,
Vicenza,
Belluno and
Padua. This spread throughout the Italian peninsula and demonstrated that the tricolour flag had by then assumed a consolidated symbolism valid throughout the national territory. The iconography of the Italian flag then began to spread not only in the vexillological and military fields, but also in some everyday objects such as scarves and clothing fabrics. This turning point lasted until the failure of revolutions and the end of the First Italian War of Independence (1849), which ended with the defeat of the Piedmont-Sardinian Army of Charles Albert; after this, the ancient flags were restored. Only the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia confirmed the Italian tricolour as the national flag of the state even after the First Italian War of Independence ended. After the defeat in the First Italian War of Independence in 1849, Charles Albert abdicated in favour of his son
Victor Emmanuel II.
From the unification of Italy to World War I and
Napoleon III of France entered
Milan during the
Second Italian War of Independence (1859). On 14 April 1855, before the departure for the
Crimean War, the Italian tricolour flags were solemnly entrusted to the soldiers of the
Sardinian Expeditionary Corps in the Crimean War by King
Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia with the following farewell sentence: One of the Italian flags that participated in the Crimean War is kept in the
Royal Armoury of Turin. In 1857, an Italian flag with the pole surmounted by a Phrygian cap and with an
archipendulum, a symbol of social balance, was a symbol of the
Sapri expedition, or rather the failed attempt to trigger a revolt in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies perpetrated by
Carlo Pisacane. In order not to be captured, Pisacane committed suicide, and was reported to be bandaged with the tricolour flag. On 10 January 1859, King Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia, in front of the members of parliament, announced the imminent entry into war of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia against the
Austrian Empire: (1860–1861) When the
Second Italian War of Independence (1859) broke out, volunteers from all over Italy were enrolled in the Piedmont-Sardinian army. During the Second Italian War of Independence, the cities that were gradually conquered by Victor Emmanuel II of Piedmont-Sardinia and
Napoleon III of France greeted the two sovereigns as liberators in a riot of flags and tricolour cockades; even the centres about to ask for annexation to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia through plebiscites underlined their desire to be part of a united Italy with the waving of the tricolour. The Italian flag waved in Lombardy, annexed following the victory of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in the Second Italian War of Independence, as well as in
Tuscany,
Emilia,
Marche and
Umbria, annexed in the following year to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia through plebiscites, but also in cities that would have had to wait some time before being annexed, such as
Rome and
Naples. The enthusiasm of the population toward the tricolour grew in addition to the army of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia and the troops of volunteers who participated in the Second Italian War of Independence, the green, white and red flag spread widely available in newly conquered or annexed regions by plebiscites, appearing on house windows, in shop windows and in public places such as hotels and taverns. The tricolour was also the flag of the
United Provinces of Central Italy, a short-lived
military government established by the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia that was formed by a union of the former
Grand Duchy of Tuscany,
Duchy of Parma,
Duchy of Modena, and the
Papal Legations, after their monarchs were ousted by popular revolutions. The United Provinces of Central Italy existed from 1859 to 1860, when they were annexed to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. (1861) among a profusion of tricolour flags The tricolour accompanied, although not officially, also the volunteers of the
Expedition of the Thousand (1860–1861) led by
Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose goal was to conquer the
Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Garibaldi, in particular, had an absolute deference and respect for the Italian flag. Shortly after the loss of Sicily, on 25 June 1860, trying to limit the damage given the growing participation of the population in the Expedition of the Thousand, King
Francis II of the Two Sicilies, decreed that the green, white and red flag was also the official banner of his Kingdom, with the
House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies coat of arms superimposed on the white. Adopted on 21 June 1860, this lasted until 17 March 1861, when the Two Sicilies was incorporated into the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, after its defeat in the Expedition of the Thousand. Ironically, in the final phase of the Expedition of the Thousand, the tricolour of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies fluttered in antagonism to the tricolour flag of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. Two of the original tricolours that flew on the
Lombardo steamship that participated, together with
Piedmont, in the Expedition of the Thousand, are preserved, respectively, inside the
Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano in Rome and the Museum of the Risorgimento in
Palermo. from 1829 to 1871 On 17 March 1861, there was the
proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy, a formal act that sanctioned, with a normative act of the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the birth of the unified Kingdom of Italy. On 15 April 1861, the flag of the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia was declared the flag of the newly formed Kingdom of Italy. The tricolour therefore continued to be the national flag also of the new State, although not officially recognised by a specific law, but regulated with regard to the shape of military banners. This Italian tricolour, with the armorial bearings of the former Royal
House of Savoy, was the first national flag and lasted in that form for 85 years until the
birth of the Italian Republic in 1946. entering
Venice during the
Third Italian War of Independence (1866) among a profusion of tricolour flags The
tricolore had a universal, transversal meaning, shared by both
monarchists and
republicans,
progressives and
conservatives and
Guelphs as well as by the Ghibellines. The tricolour was chosen as the flag of a united Italy also for this reason. After the Unification of Italy, the use of the tricolour became increasingly widespread among the population as the flag and its colours began to appear on the labels of commercial products, school notebooks, the first cars and cigar packages. Even among the aristocrats it was successful; the most important families often had a flag bearer installed on the main façade of their mansions where they placed the Italian tricolour. It then began to appear outside public buildings, schools, judicial offices and post offices. During this period, tricolour bands were introduced for mayors and the jurors of the assize court during this period. Following the
Third Italian War of Independence in 1866,
Veneto and
Friuli were annexed to the Kingdom of Italy; the entry of the
Italian Army troops into
Venice, which took place on 19 October 1866, was greeted by a profusion of tricolour flags. Since the promulgation of a resolution of its municipal council, dated 5 November 1866,
Vicenza is the only city in Italy to have adopted the tricolour flag as its own
gonfalon, instead of the civic banner, loaded with the coat of arms of the municipality. The Venetian city decided to patriotically change the nature of its sign shortly before the visit of King Victor Emmanuel II, who arrived in the city for the awarding of the
Gold Medal of Military Valour earned by the Venetian municipality with the
battle of Monte Berico, fought on 10 June 1848 in the outskirts of the city. The occasion of the Sovereign's visit, Vicenza presented Victor Emmanuel II not with his own banner but, a decision from which his subsequent resolution was to originate, the Italian tricolour. Every year, on the third Sunday in June, the remembrance of the war episode is celebrated in Oliosi. At the
military parade on 2 June 2011, held in
via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome on the occasion of the celebrations for the 150th
anniversary of the unification of Italy, the
Tricolore di Oliosi was paraded on a
cannon carriage along with five other historic Italian flags. Massimo d'Azeglio was among the first to recognise the importance of the tricolour flag as a tool for forming a widespread national awareness. In this regard he declared: "The flag is a privileged symbol in the pedagogy of a nation". Tricolour flags then greeted the Italian Army during the march toward Rome, which ended with the
capture of Rome on 20 September 1870, and the annexation of
Lazio to the Kingdom of Italy. Rome officially became the capital of Italy on 1 January 1871, while the establishment of the royal court and the Savoy government took place on 6 July of the same year. From this date, the Italian flag flies from the highest flagpole of the
Quirinal Palace. sent from the
Italian Eritrea in 1907 and depicting an eagle flying an Italian flag The first
Italian colony was founded in 1882, the
Assab bay, which became the first outpost of the future
Italian Eritrea, where the flag of Italy waved in an Italian colony for the first time. Subsequently, the tricolour also waved in the
Italian Somaliland, in the
Italian Libya, in the
Italian concession of Tientsin and in the
Italian Islands of the Aegean. In 1897, the Italian flag had its 100th anniversary. The centennial celebration in
Reggio Emilia, where the tricolour was created on 7 January 100 years earlier,
Giosuè Carducci, who later became the first Italian to win the
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1906, defined the flag as "blessed" and kissed it at the end of the speech. during the opening
parade of the XXXIV
Immigrant's Festival Around 1880 began large waves of
Italian diaspora, especially towards the Americans. The tricolour, often carried in the suitcases of migrants, began to wave outside the national borders, especially in the
Little Italies that were forming around the world. This bond with the land of origin did not fade with the passing of generations—often still alive in the third or fourth generation. Several years earlier in 1861,
U.S. president Abraham Lincoln reviewed some military units that were participating in the
American Civil War—among them was a
Garibaldi Guard, made up of Italian immigrants, which had as its military banner the tricolour flag. In 1885, the tricolour jersey was introduced for the cyclist who won the title of champion of Italy. Conceptually, this recognition is similar to the placement of a tricolour shield, the
scudetto, on the jerseys of the team champion of Italy in
football,
rugby,
volleyball and
basketball. The idea of affixing a
scudetto on the shirts of the winning sports teams of the respective national championships was
Gabriele D'Annunzio. In football, the first sport to use it, it was introduced in 1924. The king was shot four times by the
Italian-American anarchist Gaetano Bresci. Bresci claimed he wanted to avenge the people killed in Milan during the suppression of the
riots of May 1898. Umberto I was succeeded by his son
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy.
The two world wars and the interwar period Italy entered
World War I in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity, and for this reason, the Italian intervention in World War I is also considered the
Fourth Italian War of Independence in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the
unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the
revolutions of 1848 with the
First Italian War of Independence. King
Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, the day the Kingdom of Italy entered the war, appeared from the balcony of the
Quirinal Palace while waving the tricolour shouting "Long live Italy". Victor Emmanuel III then made an official proclamation shortly before leaving for the
Italian war front, which read, in its final part: The tricolour flag was a symbol in both the trenches and in the civil sphere. The colours green, white and red were widely used as a stimulus to the general mobilisation and moral sustenance of the civilian population, which was climbing a path that would have led to a very difficult situation, characterised by many deprivations. In the trenches, the tricolour was a fundamental symbol to spur the soldiers, while on the home front it was important for compacting and strengthening civil society. , celebrates the Italian victory over
Austria-Hungary in World War I with a tricolour over the newly conquered city of
Trieste. During the
flight over Vienna, on 9 August 1918 aerial flyer
Gabriele D'Annunzio launched the tricolour leaflet over Vienna with which he exhorted the enemy to surrender and end the war. The Italian troops then entered
Trieste in November 1918 following the victory in the
battle of Vittorio Veneto, which ended the conflict with the retreat and the definitive defeat of the Austrians. The War Bulletin No. 1267 of 3 November 1918 by General
Armando Diaz announced the
Bollettino della Vittoria and the
Bollettino della Vittoria Navale by few days, read: After World War I, the Italian flag was also a symbol of the
Impresa di Fiume, led by D'Annunzio, and a consequence of the so-called "
mutilated victory", a term used to describe the dissatisfaction concerning territorial rewards in favour of Italy at the end of World War I, shouted: "raise the flag: wave the tricolour!" During the
Italian Regency of Carnaro (1919–1920), a state entity that administered the city of
Fiume, now part of modern-day
Croatia, D'Annunzio defined the Italian flag "the garment of the eternal nation" and urged the Italians to rebel against those responsible for the
defeat of Caporetto by waving the "tricolour across the sky". In particular, Italy, as a peace agreement at the conclusion of World War I, signed the
Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) and the
Treaty of Rapallo (1920), which allowed the annexation of
Trentino Alto-Adige,
Julian March,
Istria,
Kvarner, with the cities of
Trieste,
Trento,
Gorizia,
Pola, as well as the
Dalmatian city of
Zara. The subsequent
Treaty of Rome (1924) led to the annexation of the city of Fiume to Italy. The coffin of the
Italian Unknown Soldier was placed on the
gun carriage of a
cannon and wrapped in a tricolour flag during its journey from the
Basilica di Santa Maria Assunta, Aquileia to the
Altare della Patria in Rome, which took place in 1921 on a
railway hearse. This historic flag is kept inside the
Central Museum of the Risorgimento at the Vittoriano in Rome. . (1943–1945) With the
March on Rome in 1922, and the establishment of the
fascist dictatorship, the Italian flag lost its symbolic uniqueness partly obscured by the iconography of the regime. When it was used, as the symbol of the
National Fascist Party, its history was distorted, given that the tricolour was born as a symbol of freedom and
civil rights. Despite this supporting role, with the royal decree nº 2072 of 24 September 1923 and subsequently with the law nº2264 of 24 December 1925, the tricolour officially became the national flag of the Kingdom of Italy. On 31 January 1923, the salute to the flag by the students of Italian schools was instituted by the
Ministry of Public Education whereby every Saturday morning, at the end of the lesson, the students paid homage to the flag with the
Roman salute and with the performance of patriotic musical pieces. In 1926, the Fascist regime attempted to have the Italian national flag redesigned by having the
fasces, the symbol used by the Fascist movement, included on the flag. This attempt by the Fascist government to change the Italian flag to incorporate the fasces was stopped by strong opposition to the proposal by Italian monarchists. (1943–1945) In 1926, an Italian flag was first brought to the
North Pole by the
Norge airship during the expedition led by
Umberto Nobile and
Roald Amundsen; the tricolours then greeted
Italo Balbo in his oceanic
seaplane crossings. The
Azione Cattolica, which made the Italian flag its banner in 1931, grouped the children of its organisation dedicated to children into three categories, which were based on age group and colours of the Italian flag: "green flames", "white flames" and "red flames". In August 1933, the Italian
ocean liner SS Rex, which had just won the
Blue Riband, arrived in
New York City setting the record for Atlantic Ocean crossing in the shortest time (four days) was greeted by the waving of tricolour flags. Trains covered with tricolour flags carried the settlers to the new cities founded after the reclamation of the
Pontine Marshes, while on 5 May 1936 there was the solemn flag-raising in
Addis Ababa,
Italian Ethiopia, which greeted the founding of the
Italian Empire. The flag in Addis Ababa was then lowered in November 1941 at the end of the
East African campaign, which was fought during
World War II. remembered together with the period of the
unification of Italy on a propaganda poster of the Italian Social Republic. In the background, a tricolour is waving. Italy entered World War II on 10 June 1940 with the speech by
Benito Mussolini delivered from the main balcony of
Palazzo Venezia in Rome, but the climate was different from that which characterised Italy's entry into World War I. The king did not appear on the balcony of the Quirinal Palace waving the flag as he did in 1915. During World War II, the Italian flag came back strongly after the
Armistice of Cassibile of 8 September 1943, where it was taken as a symbol by the two sides who faced each other in the
Italian Civil War in an attempt to recall the unification of Italy and its cultural tradition. In particular, it was used by the
partisans as a symbol of the struggle against tyrants and emblem of the dream of a free Italy. Even the
communist partisan brigades, which had the
red flag as the official banner, often waved the Italian flag. Tricolour flags were also the official banners of the
Italian Partisan Republics and of the
National Liberation Committee, as well as their antagonists, the Republicans in an attempt to recall the period of the
unification of Italy and its cultural background. The national flag of the short-lived Fascist state in
northern Italy, the
Italian Social Republic (1943–1945), or "Republic of Salò" as it was commonly known, was identical to the flag of the modern
Italian Republic, as both republics used the previous flag of the
Kingdom of Italy with the coat of arms of
Savoy removed. This flag was rarely seen, while the war flag, charged with a silver/black eagle clutching horizontally placed
fascio littorio (literally, bundles of the
lictors), was very common in propaganda. Italian fascism derived its name from the fasces, which symbolised
imperium, or power and authority, in
ancient Rome. Roman legions had carried the
aquila, or eagle, as
signa militaria. The Italian tricolour was also used for propaganda. The Italian Social Republic, for example, used it on a poster depicting
Goffredo Mameli, the author of the lyrics of , the
national anthem of Italy from 1946, with an unsheathed sword and a tricolour behind him while he launches towards an assault. This poster bears the words "Brothers of Italy / Italy has woken!" and "1849–1944 The spirit of Goffredo Mameli/Defend the Social Republic". On 25 April 1945, the government of Mussolini fell. This event is commemorated by
Liberation Day. With the liberation, the tricolour appeared in public places such as the towers of town halls, on bell towers of churches, and in factories. Remembering these events,
Francesco Cossiga, at the time
president of the Senate of the Republic, in a speech delivered on 28 June 1984, said: In the eastern Italian territories occupied by the Yugoslav partisan militias, the Italian flag was used with a red star in the centre as a model of the flag used by the partisan
Garibaldi Brigades initially in the city of
Fiume in 1943, then extended to all the territories where the Italian ethnic minority (
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians) resided. Having entered
Yugoslavia, this flag remained official until 1992, when it was officially replaced by the flag adopted by the Italian state. Following the defeat of Italy in World War II and the
Paris Treaties of 1947,
Istria,
Kvarner and most of
Julian March, with the cities of Pola, Fiume and Zara, passed to Yugoslavia, and after the latter's dissolution, to Croatia, causing the
Istrian-Dalmatian exodus which led to the emigration of between 230,000 and 350,000 of local ethnic
Italians (
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians), the others being ethnic Slovenians, ethnic Croatians, and ethnic
Istro-Romanians, choosing to maintain Italian citizenship. After World War II, Gorizia was divided in two: one part remained with Italy while the other, which was renamed "
Nova Gorica", passed first to Yugoslavia and then to
Slovenia.
Italian Republic On 13 June 1946, the
Italian Republic was officially founded and the last
king of Italy Umberto II, who succeeded his father Victor Emmanuel III on 9 May 1946, left the country on 13 June into exile. On the same day, the tricolour with the Savoy coat of arms in the centre was lowered from the Quirinal Palace. The Italian flag was modified with the decree of the president of the Council of Ministers No. 1 of 19 June 1946. Compared to the monarchic banner, the Savoy coat of arms was eliminated. This decision was later confirmed in the session of 24 March 1947 by the
Constituent Assembly, which decreed the insertion of article 12 of the
Italian Constitution, subsequently ratified by the
Italian Parliament, which states: The members of the Constituent Assembly were deeply moved when they approved this article, and as a sign of joy and respect, stood up and applauded at length shortly after the approval. Shortly before the officialisation of the flag in the constitution, on 7 January 1947, the tricolour turned 150. The role of master of ceremonies that belonged to
Giosuè Carducci 50 years earlier was assumed by
Luigi Salvatorelli, whose speech, uttered during the Reggio Emilia official celebrations in the presence of
Enrico De Nicola, Provisional Head of State, alluded to the delicate phase that post-war Italy was going through with particular reference to the humiliations suffered by the country in World War II: '' due to its length. The Republican tricolour was then officially and solemnly delivered to the Italian military corps on 4 November 1947 on the occasion of
National Unity and Armed Forces Day. The universally adopted ratio is 2:3, while the war flag is squared (1:1). Each
comune also has a
gonfalone bearing its coat of arms. On 27 May 1949, a law was passed that described and regulated the way the flag was displayed outside public buildings and during national holidays. During the republican era, the tricolour greeted important events in Italian history. The flag was hoisted at the top of
K2 during the
Italian expedition in 1954 that led
Achille Compagnoni and
Lino Lacedelli to be the first people to reach the summit of this mountain—the second highest in the world after
Mount Everest, and was brought in 2011 to the
International Space Station by astronaut
Roberto Vittori on the occasion of the 150th
anniversary of the unification of Italy. A profusion of Italian flags greeted the return of Trieste to Italy in 1954, which took place following the agreements signed between the governments of Italy, the
United Kingdom, the
United States and Yugoslavia concerning the status of the
Free Territory of Trieste, an independent territory situated between northern Italy and Yugoslavia. The territory, under the
direct responsibility of the
United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of World War II, established on 10 February 1947 by a protocol of the
Treaty of Peace with Italy. The Italian
naval ensign comprises the national flag defaced with the arms of the
Italian Navy; the
mercantile marine (and private citizens at sea) use the civil ensign, differenced by the absence of the
mural crown and the lion holding open the gospel, bearing the inscription, PAX TIBI MARCE EVANGELISTA MEVS instead of a sword. The shield is quartered, symbolic of the four great
thalassocracies of Italy, the
repubbliche marinare of
Venice (represented by the lion
passant, top left),
Genoa (top right),
Amalfi (bottom left), and
Pisa (represented by their respective crosses); the
rostrata crown was proposed by
Admiral Cavagnari in 1939 to acknowledge the Navy's origins in ancient Rome. The tricolour flag was the official banner of the
Italian Trust Administration of Somalia (1950–1960), which was granted on a
UN mandate, and which was the first
peacekeeping mission of the
Italian Army. The tricolour continues to represent Italy in all peacekeeping missions in which the Italian Armed Forces participate. , honours the flag of
Cispadane Republic, first Italian flag, during the
Tricolour Day on 7 January 2004 in Reggio Emilia. In 1997, on its bicentenary, 7 January was declared
Tricolour Day; it is intended as a celebration, though not a public holiday. On 31 December 1996, with the same law that established the Tricolour Day, a celebration held on 7 January of each year in memory of the adoption of the red, white and green flag by the Cispadane Republic (7 January 1797), established a national committee of 20 members that would have the objective of organising the first solemn commemoration of the birth of the Italian flag. Among the events celebrating the bicentenary of the Italian flag, was the longest tricolour in history, which also entered the
Guinness World Records at long, wide and had an area of , and paraded in Rome from the
Colosseum to the
Capitoline Hill. During the celebrations for the 140 years of national unity, on 4 November 2001, in
San Martino della Battaglia, during the
National Unity and Armed Forces Day, in reference to the tricolour, the former president of the Italian Republic,
Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, said: In 2003, a state ensign was created specifically for non-military vessels engaged in non-commercial government service whereby the Italian tricolour is defaced with the
national coat of arms. Since 1914, the
Italian Air Force have also used a
roundel of concentric rings in the colours of the tricolour as aircraft marking, substituted, from 1923 to 1943, by encircled fasces. The , officially known as the 313º Gruppo Addestramento Acrobatico, is its aerobatic demonstration team. The law n. 222 of 23 November 2012, concerning "Rules on the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the field of" Citizenship and Constitution "and on the teaching of the Mameli hymn in schools", prescribes the study in schools of the Italian flag and other
national symbols of Italy. ==Historical evolution of the flag==