Last modified: 2002-01-05 by pascal gross
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The flag adopted by the Helvetic Republic was green-red-yellow
horizontally.
Harald Müller, 15 July 1996
When the French under Napoléon conquered great parts of Europe
they created republics all over. Flags were introduced according to
the French model, i.e. vertical and horizontal tricolours. Switzerland
met the same fate in 1798. Later on, after France had become an empire,
all those republics were transformed into kingdoms (often with
Napoléon's relatives as monarchs).
Harald Müller, 26 January 1996
It is a correction in the sense that the font is more correct. It
is a variant in the sense that I'm not sure whether "La Paix" was on
all flags. This GIF is rendered from a photograph of a surviving
flag. The photo is actually pale blue-pink-white, but I find no
evidence that those were the actual colours, and I assume that it
faded from green-red-yellow.
The Helvetic Republic (Switzerland) was proclaimed on 19 March 1798.
This flag was officially adopted on 13 February 1799. It is in effect the first national flag of modern
Switzerland.
T.F. Mills, 24 September 1997