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Dominican Republic

República Dominicana

Last modified: 2006-03-18 by antonio martins
Keywords: dominican republic | republica dominicana | cross (white) | coat of arms: cross | dios patria libertad | liberty | fire | blood | struggle | sacrifice | olive | palm | flag | book: bible | bible | cross: latin (yellow) |
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Flag of the Dominican Republic
image by Željko Heimer, 16 Jun 2001
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Description

Quatered with a white cross, first and fourth fields blue, second and third red. Origin of colours is from Haitian flag. It was officially accepted on 1844.11.06.
Željko Heimer, 12 Dec 1995

The flag with arms is not, in fact, merely the State Flag (-S-/-S-) in the way that this is normally meant in South America, but is the National Flag (CSW/-SW), as laid down in the Constitution:

The Constitution of the Dominican Republic
28 November 1966 (last amended 10 August 1994)
Article 95:

The National Flag consists of the colours ultramarine blue and vermilion red in alternate quarters, placed in such a way that the blue is towards the upper part of the staff, separated by wide white cross half as wide as the height of one quarter, and bearing in the centre the arms of the Republic. The merchant flag is the same as the National Flag without the coat of arms.

[cp. original]
Christopher Southworth, 11 Aug 2003

War ensign and jack (as of 1939): This is one of the five dominican naval flags in Flaggenbuch (1939-1941) [neu39]. (The others are civil ensign, flag of the Generalissime flag of rear-admiral, head of a flotilla and admiral flag)
Ivan Sache, 10 Apr 1999

This is acording the presidential decree of 1913.
Jaume Ollé, 14 Nov 1998

Adoption dates of the flags and arms is 6 November 1844 for both emblems [merchant ensign and national flag].
Ivan Sache, 18 Nov 2001

The blue is said to stand for Liberty, red for the fire and blood of the independence struggle and the white cross is a symbol of sacrifice.
Dave Martucci, 12 Oct 1999


Design issues

Colors

I would have assumed azul ultramar was ultramarine blue, which in US use is about plain blue (B) or dark blue (B+). Pictures I’ve seen of the Dom.Rep. flag, including in Album 2000 [pay00], seem to use very dark blue (B++).
Joe McMillan, 07 Jan 2002

All Dominican flag images in Album 1995 [pie95] employ a light blue shade, but that was changed on Correction 30 [pay98] to dark blue and should not be significant.
Željko Heimer, 19 Jun 2001

Height to length ratio

The flag of the Dominican Republic is detailed in the Constitution, and whilst this lays down a width for the cross it does not give a ratio.
Christopher Southworth, 22 Jun 2003

It is remarkable how the legislators are able to write ambigous descriptions when trying to be as precise as possible. In the Constitution, the width of the white cross is described to be «half as wide as the height of one quarter» when it is not quite clear what is meant by the quarter — i.e.. is it one quarter of the flag or one of the coloured quarters?… The first option would make the cross width equal 1/4 of the hoist, i.e., hoistwide division of 3+2+3. The other one would make the cross width equal 1/5 of the hoist, i.e., hoistwise division of 4+2+4.
Željko Heimer, 12 Aug 2003

Kannik [kan56] says: (6+3+6):(10+3+10), making 15:23 (≈0,652).
Ole Andersen, 22 Jun 1998

The construction details are given in the Album [pay00] as (8+4+8):(13+4+13), =2:3 (≈0,667), though the picture does not conform to it (white cross seems wider). Other sources do not agree on the flag ratio, so that e.g. [zna99] and [vdv00] have 5:8 (=0,625); [smi72c] and [smi82] have ≅2:3 (≅0,667).
Željko Heimer, 16 Jun 2001

Christian Fogd Pedersen also gives moist measurements of 8-4-8 but proportions of 15:23.
Christopher Southworth, 12 Aug 2003


Coat of arms detail

Emblem of the Dominican Republic
image by Željko Heimer, 16 Jun 2001 (clipart source: CorelDRAW)

Various sources have the coat of arms of different size within the cross, reaching from height bigger than the cross width to height approximately 2/3 of the cross width.
Željko Heimer, 16 Jun 2001

This emblem is similar to the flag design and shows a bible, a cross of gold, 4 Dominican flags and two spears on a pattern from the flag. there are bracches of olive and palm around the shield and above on a ribbon is the motto "Dios, Patria, Libertad" meaning "God, Fatherland, Liberty". Below the shield is another ribbon bearing the name of the country "República Dominicana".
Dave Martucci, 12 Oct 1999

On the flags page of the Dominican Republic presidential website the arms are quite

  • different from the one we see generally for this country:
  • letters in white
  • book outlining in black
  • different design of ribbons and of palms
  • etc.
Armand du Payrat, 15 Oct 2001

The correct spelling of the country name is "República Dominicana" (with acute on "u"), right? Shouldn’t there be an acute over "U" in the arms ribbon as well?
Željko Heimer, 19 Jun 2001