Flag Croatia

Croatian Flag: 3x5' Poly.
Croatian horizontal tricolour of red, white and blue inherited it's colours, of course, from the Croatian coats of arms: Croatian chequered red and silver, Dalmatian blue with three golden leopards, and Slavonian blue with red field with black marten bordered with two white wavy lines, and golden star above. All of the three coats were, in fact, used in different times for all the land, as it is with the name also. Later in 19th cent. the geographical meaning of these names was finally firmly established. The land was named in 19th cent Triunar (meaning one made of three) Kingdom of Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia. Therefore, it is not unusual that the flag was made of all three colours.

The first time that it was officially proclaimed was in 1848 and under the influence of revolutionary movements in Europe, a simple tricolour was made. The flag was, of course, without any coat. However, it was used as local flag in a big empire, so it remained more or less internationally unknown, but it became one of the most important symbols of the Croatian people. Very often it can be seen on old postcards, most often together with Croatian coats (normally not on the flag, but from time to time as a part of the flag).

After the end of the World War Croatia proclaimed independence, and a tricolour became the state flag, again without coats. The collision with the Dutch flag didn't became, as a matter of fact, a problem, because the state was short living. After a short time, Croatia was united with Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the State of Slovenians, Croats and Serbs (not to be mistaken with the later Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenians), and a month later occupied by Serbian forces united in a Kingdom under Serbian dynasty which already had annexed Montenegro. This state was then named Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and took a neutral combination of pan-slavene colours blue white red (both Serbia and Montenegro had red blue white and Slovenia white blue red).

The Croatian flag again remained as local flag, highly respected by the people, but half illegal, as the Belgrade government tried to unite all nations into a Yugoslav nation. These efforts didn't succeed, and in 1938 a separate province (banovina) of Croatia was made. It took, as one can expect, the red white blue tricolour and in official use the coat of the province in the middle. By this time many Croatian political parties used the Croatian tricolour with their respective symbol in the middle.

One of interpretations of colours dating from late 19th century is Red Croatia, White Croatia, and Kingdom of Slavonia (blue). Red and White Croatia are Croatian states from early middle age, approximately in today's Dalmatia (Red) and central Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (White).

And finally to mention an interpretation of colours of the Croatian flag made by Miroslav Krleza, a great national writer, saying that the colours represent the three symbols of Croatian history and people: blood of Croatian martyrs, Croatian peaceful lamb like nature, and Croatian devotion to God.

Actually, the heraldic definition of chequered red and white does say something on which one goes first. At least in English, "chequy gules and argent" means red (gules) goes first, and "chequy argent and gules" means white (argent) goes first.
But the shield is older than the description; and it's likely that in old days, before armigers became numerous enough to require such fine distinctions, the shield was represented both ways.
A partial solution might be to use a shield whose top edge is not square, so the "first" cell is ambiguous.

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