Talk:Flags of formerly independent states

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[edit] Newfoundland

Newfoundland was never an independant state. It was always an English/British dependency. Its flag should be deleted. Likewise Nova Scotia was never an independent state. It was always a French and/or English dependency. Its flag should be deleted.

The above statement is incorrect. Newfoundland was an independent nation before joining Canada. Newfoundland was granted Dominion status (the same as New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and Australia) in 1907. Jcmurphy 13:03, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
It certainly was an idependent nation, but it apparently never officially adopted a flag of its own, continuing instead to fly the flag of the state it had been a dependency of. I.e., the flag depicted was not "the flag of the Republic of Newfoundland" but was rather "the flag used by the Republic of Newfoundland in the absence of a national flag of its own". By such a criteria, I don't think it should be listed here, or if it is, I think a footnote is required explaining this strange situation. --ScottMainwaring 16:49, 29 August 2006 (UTC)

I'd like to remove Newfoundland. The independence of any of the dominions in 1907 is debatable and Newfoundland probably more so than the others. It certainly wasn't indepenedent after 1934, probably wasn't in 1933 and likely not before that either. Besides that, the flag has the problems that Scott mentioned above so I'd like to see it removed. --JGGardiner 07:43, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

As well, the current flag is no longer the Union Flag mentioned above but the "blue ensign" which was neither official (as the national flag) or in popular use as such. I'm going to remove Nfld. from the article now since there were no objections so far.

[edit] Catalonia

Catalonia was an independent country from 988 until 1714, when it was occupied by Spanish troops. A very similar situation occurs with Aragon, Valencia, the Balearic Islands (Kingdom of Mallorca) and Navarre, although dates are not the same. I suggest to include them in the list of former independent nations.

See Category:Short-lived states and Category:Former countries for more possible entries. Punkmorten 23:11, 2 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wales

Why is the Flag of Wales shown twice, with 2 different independence years? --rhmoore 05:44, 24 February 2006 (UTC)

Probably an editing mistake. Y'know, you could have fixed it. Be bold! EdC 08:46, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Somaliland

The text underneath the flag is incorrect: "Flag of Somaliland (independent for 5 days in 1960, before unifying with Italian Somalia to form Somalia)". It should reflect the facts presented at Somaliland which states: "In May 1991, Somaliland people declared an independent Republic of Somaliland that now includes five of the eighteen administrative regions of Somalia...". I think this should be changed. -- RND   talk  00:42, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

It's not officially recognised as being independent currently, so it's only formerly independent as far as international law is concerned. —Nightstallion (?) 18:33, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
hmm true I guess -- RND  T  C  23:39, 2 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Soviet Union

Should the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics not be listed as a former state in Asia? --Mcnuus 00:47, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

Soviet republics were AFAIK hardly independent in most senses of the word. --Himasaram 01:56, 27 November 2006 (UTC)

But shouldn't the USSR's flag be here? Not the individual Soviet republics', but the Soviet Union's? –SESmith 22:24, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

I think you're right. Although it looks as though this article only documents states that were swallowed up rather than ones which fell apart. --JGGardiner 05:12, 4 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Deleting flags that do not belong here is not vandalism

Under a different IP adress (82.135.15.68) I had deleted several flags that do not belong here. I did comment the deletions in the edit summary. Simply reverting this (and calling my actions "vandalism") is not the correct behavior!--82.135.28.22 12:27, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

I deleted again the following flags for the reasons in brackets
- Alsace (Alsace was not independent)
- Wales (during the time of Welsh independence this flag was not used, it is of much more recent design)
- Kalmar Union (these are states that have split, but not formerly independent states)
- Czechoslovakia (these are states that have split, but not formerly independent states)
- Yugoslavia & Serbia-Montenegro (these are states that have split, but not formerly independent states)
- Brittany (during the time of Breton independence this flag was not used, it is of much more recent design)
- Belarus (Belarus is independent again, so it is not a formerly independent state)
- Lado (Lado when independent did not use this flag)
- Somaliland (Somaliland never used this flag in 1960)
- Hunza (Hunza flag most probably not used during independence)
- Rapa Nui (Rapa Nui flag never used during independence)--82.135.28.22 12:29, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
While it may not be vandalism, simply deleting a flag here instead of moving it to a more appropriate flag gallery is not very helpful, from the standpoint of Wikipedia's coverage of vexillology. If there isn't a more apropriate place, that would seem to be an excellent starting point for a discussion. --ScottMainwaring 17:01, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
Should unifications be included? e.g.
Pædia 08:52, 23 May 2007 (UTC)