image by Jaume Ollé
Last modified: 2005-10-08 by dov gutterman
Keywords: guatemala | los altos | republic of los altos | quetzaltenango |
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I located <www.deguate.com>,
in which we can find some historical flags of Guatemala including
the legal sources in Spanish.The site includes:
1823 flag (United Provinces of Central
America) - same as below
1825 flag (United Provinces of Central
America) - same as below but in lighter blue shade.
1838 flag (State of Los Altos) which
described below as VERTICAL, but appears as HORIZONTAL at the
site. an horizontal variant appears at Quetzaltenango
Department.
1851 flag - same as below
1858 flag - the 1:1:1:3:1:1:1 variant (which
is probably the right one).
No mention of the 1843 flags and 1871 flag , however according also to this site,
the vertical bands flag was adopted on 17 August 1871, so maybe
there is a mistake in Jaume report.
Dov Gutterman, 7 December 2000
My research indicated that Guatemala has had 13 flag changes
since effective independence (from Mexico) in July 1823,
including changes in the federal flag of the United Provinces of
the Centre of America.
Ralph Kelly, 13 August 2005
Guatemala as member of United States of Central America
image by Jaume Ollé
Abolished: 1 January 1825
1823.gif)
Coat of Arms
image contributed by Fred Drews, 23 November 1999
Guatemala as a member of Federal Republic of Central America
image by Jaume Ollé
Adopted: 22 November 1824. Abolished: 1 January 1825
Jaume Ollé
The first flag with B.N. was a military flag! B.N. meaning
Batallon Nacional. This flag was not only used in Guatemala.
Ralf Stelter, 7 November 2000
I agree. It was used also in Chiapas and surely also in
Honduras, but I can't found any report about use in other
provinces.
Jaume Ollé, 11 November 2000
image by Jaume Ollé
Adopted: 1 January 1825 Abolished: c. 1838. Between c. 1838
and 1843 the flag was used with the arms adopted on 1825 in the
central white stripe.
Jaume Ollé
image by Jaume Ollé
image by Jaume Ollé
According to William Crampton's "The Complete Guide to
Flags" the flag of the Republic of Los Altos (1848) was
vertical red-white-light blue with the arms in the center (like
the city of Quetzaltenango).
Mark Sensen, 28 July 1996
This is not entirely correct. The correct name of this
"republic" is "El Estado de los Altos"
which translated could be written as the "State of Los
Altos". The exact date of the creation of the state of Los
Altos was December 27, 1838 and NOT 1848 as you said.
Guido Solares, 27 July 1998
Actually, the correct name for the Country is "Republica
del Sexto Estado de los Altos". Its capital was
Quetzaltenango (The second city in size and importance in
Guatemala).
Juan Carlos Arriola, 17 November 1998
I located <www.deguate.com>,
in which we can find some historical flags of Guatemala including
the legal sources in Spanish. The site includes the 1838 flag
(State of Los Altos) which described above as VERTICAL, but
appears as HORIZONTAL at the site. an horizontal variant appears
at Quetzaltenango Department.
Dov Gutterman, 7 December 2000
At J.W Norie - J.S. Hobbs: Flaggen aller seefahrenden
Nationen, 1971 [nor71] (original
print 1848):
274 Guatamala - Blue-White-Red, no regalia. If the eagle is
really a quetzal bird this corresponds with Quetzaltenango Department.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 12 November 2001
From <www.vdiest.nl>:
- 2 Febuary 1838 - State of Los Altos (Republica del Sexto Estado
de los Altos) (independence from State of Guatemala, recognized 5
Jun 1838); constituent state of the Central American Federation
to 26 May 1839.
- 27 January 1840 - Reincorporated into Guatemala.
- 5 September 1848 - Independence again.
- 21 October 1848 - Reincorporated into Guatemala.
Francisco Santos, 7 August 2003
image by Jaume Ollé
image by Jaume Ollé
Ratio 2:3 Adopted: 26 Octuber 1843 Abolished: 14 March 1851.
Jaume Ollé
![[Guatemala (1851)]](../images/g/gt-1851.gif)
image by Vincent Morley
The 'Grand Dictionnaire Universelle du XIXe Sie'cle' (Paris 1865) describes a very unusual flag for Guatemala. There is no illustration but the description of the flag is as follows:
My interpretation of this description is the image above. The
article on national flags would seem to have been written between
1861 and 1863 because the US flag is described as having 34
stars.
Can anyone confirm that this flag existed? If so, does anyone
know the significance of the design?
Vincent Morley, 15 July 1997
The "state" (my term) version of the flag (with a coat-of-arms in the center) is illustrated in [geo17] (flag 446 on page 342.) The description (which follows a very brief history of the country) reads:
The arms in the center are tiny, but they appear to consist of
a rather square shield surrounded by a wreath. Above the shield
is what appears to be a native headdress / crown. In the chief of
the shield are three mountains, beyond which is the sun rising /
setting over the Pacific Ocean. The base of the shield consists
of the colors of the flag's field (horizontal red / white /red to
the left and blue / white / blue to the right with the arms in
the center (ie the flag is illustrated on the arms which are in
the center of the flag.)
I just checked the September 1934 flag issue of National
Geographic and it gives the date of creation of this flag as
1838.
Whitney Smiths books (1975 and 1980) do not refer to this flag.
The plethora of colors in the field of this flag probably result
from the United Provinces of Central America before things got
sorted out after Spanish rule.
Nick Artimovich, 16 July 1997
I found a larger illustration of that flag in the 1858
official French flag book by Le Gras. The device in the center of
the shield is not the coat-of-arms in miniature, rather it is a
scroll with the text: 15 September 1851 (their date of
independence) A scroll with that date still is featured on the
country's coat of arms.
Nick Artimovich, 21 July 1997
According to Flagmaster (Lucien Philippe) the design
was made by the president Mariano Paredes and adopted on 14 March
1851. The yellow and red remember the era of Spanish rule (the
red is also the federalist color, but I don't know if Paredes was
federalist)
Jaume Ollé, 17 July 1997
I've just had a look at William Crampton's [cra90] and he confirms the date of
introduction of the flag as 14 March 1851.
On the significance of the red-white-yellow colours, it may be
relevant that, according to the same source, another one of the
former United Provinces of Central America, Nicaragua, adopted a
white-yellow-red tricolour on 21 April 1854 - just three years
after Guatemala.
Vincent Morley, 18 July 1997
1:2 variant
image by Ivan Sache , 25 November 1999
Fred Drews sent an image
of 1851 flag. It is a variation of the flag above in 1:2
instead of 2:3. I cannot judge which design is the most accurate
(and it is probably difficult to judge knowing the age of the
flags).
Ivan Sache, 25 November 1999
As the flag after, this showed the closer relations to Spain.
The flag also had a state variant with arms. But not the scroll
as shown in es Gras 1858. There was an amendment to the 1858
edition which corrected the old illustrations.
Ralf Stelter, 7 November 2000
image by Ivan Sache , 25 November 1999
[cra90] says that the 1851
flag was replaced on 21 May 1858 by yet another flag with proportions
1:1:1:2:1:1:1 and that this continued in use until 18 November
1871 when the present blue-white-blue vertical triband was
introduced.
Vincent Morley, 18 July 1997
Fred Drews sent an
image of 1858 flag. Proportion of the horizontal stripes
1:1:1:3:1:1:1 instead of all equal as reported by Vincent
Morley. I cannot judge which design is the most accurate
(and it is probably difficult to judge knowing the age of the
flags).
Ivan Sache, 25 November 1999
The middle part resembles so closely the Spanish flag (war
ensign at the time) that I would think the drawing rather intends
to represent a flag with proportions 1:1:1:2:1:1:1.
Santiago Dotor, 26 November 1999
The flag was indeed 1:1:1:3:1:1:1. The stateflag bore the arms
in the center. As the flag before this showed the closer
relations to Spain.
Ralf Stelter, 7 November 2000
image by Jaume Ollé
Ratio 2:3 Unoficial use: 17 August 1871 to 28 February 1885
Jaume Ollé
Jaume gives a horizontal B-W-B as unofficial flag for 1871 -
1885. Why? What is his source?
There was an official flag since decree of 17 august 1871 B-W-B
vertical, and as far as I remember the old coa was used on the
state flag until the new coa was introduced in november 1871.
Ralf Stelter, 26 November 2000
I located <www.deguate.com>,
in which we can find some historical flags of Guatemala including
the legal sources in Spanish. There is no mention of the 1871
flag , however according also to this site, the vertical bands
flag was adopted on 17 August 1871, so maybe there is a mistake
in Jaume report.
Dov Gutterman, 7 December 2000
In 1871 a liberal revolution was started in Guatemala. Liberal
revolutionaries hoisted the HORIZONTAL blue-white-blue flag of
the federation. Flag can be see in the Museum of History and Art
of Guatemala City. After the victory flag with this colors, but
vertical, was adopted. is not clear if was adopted 17 August 1871
(under Decree of Provisory President Miguel Garcia Granados) or
28 February 1885 with President Barrios. Rufino Barrios was
president 1873-1885 and probably provisional flag of 1871 was
only confirmed in 1885. It can be assumed that in the
transitional period (1871-73) the revolutionary flag was
unofficial, but currently I believe that it dispeared after 1873.
After the research of Amerlink of the old reports published
(including the ones in wellknow vexibulletins) about the adoption
of vertical flag in 1885, it must be taken under caution.
Vertical arrangement was selected because hortizontal arrangement
was already used by El Salvador and Honduras.
Jaume Ollé, 9 December 2000
image by Jaume Ollé, 26 July 2003
No. 833 - Guatemala merchantmen, old.
Source: [stb62]
Jaume Ollé, 26 July 2003
image by Jaume Ollé, 21 August 2003
No. 873 - Guatimala (Guatemala). The central coat of arms
details are hardly visibles. General aspect remain as in
Stenbergen. This oat of arms has a resemblance with the true
Guatemala oat of arms (before 1843), but as far I know, never was
in Guatemala a flag with oat of arms bearing 8 (4+4) flags at
sides. The flag horizontal B-W-B was in use in Guatemala until
1851.
Source: [stb62]
Jaume Ollé, 21 August 2003
image by Jaume Ollé, 21 August 2003
No. 874 - Guatimala. I suspect that this flag must be from El Salvador.
Source: [stb62]
Jaume Ollé, 21 August 2003
image by Jaume Ollé, 28 August 2003
No. 909 - Guatemala. I assume that is the flag of Los Altos.
Source: [stb62]
Jaume Ollé, 28 August 2003
image by Jaume Ollé, 15 November 2003
Addition No. 259 - Guatemala merchantmen (1858), At the
foremast, Pilot required.
Source: [stb62]
Jaume Ollé, 15 November 2003
image by Jaume Ollé, 15 November 2003
Addition No. 259a - Guatemala State, Navy and War (1858).
[Date 1858 is wrong. This flag was adopted 14 March 1851].
Source: [stb62]
Jaume Ollé, 15 November 2003
