Argentina - Current

The national flag of Argentina dates from 1812. It is a triband, composed of three equally wide horizontal bands coloured light blue(cerulean blue), white and light blue. The Spanish word “celeste” is used to describe the colour of the blue stripes.
In 1818, a yellow “Sun of May” (Sol de Mayo) was added to the centre. The sun, is a replica of an engraving on the first Argentine coin, approved in 1813, whose value was eight escudos (one Spanish dollar). The engraving on the coin was modelled after the symbol of Inti, the Incan god of the Sun. It has 16 straight and 16 waved sunbeams. In 1978 the sun colour was specified to be golden yellow (amarillo oro), to have an inner diameter of 10 cm, and an outer diameter of 25 cm (the diameter of the sun equals 5 / 6 the height of the white stripe. The sun's face is 2 / 5 of its height). From 1978 it must be embroidered in the "Official Flag Ceremony" and the flag's official proportions became 9:14, and its official size is 0.9 by 1.4. The proportions of 1:2 and 2:3 are also in use though.

The colours of the flag are specified as, (RGB)Sky blue 117, 170, 219 Yellow 252, 191, 73 Brown 132, 53, 17. Pantone Sky blue 284c, Yellow 1235c, Brown 284c.

The full flag featuring the sun is called the Official Ceremonial Flag (Bandera Official de Ceremonia). The flag without the sun is considered the Ornamental Flag (Bandera de Ornato). While both versions are equally considered the national flag, the ornamental version must always be hoisted below the Official Ceremony Flag. In vexillological terms, the Official Ceremony Flag is the civil, state and war flag and ensign, while the Ornamental Flag is an alternate civil flag and ensign.

According to tradition, during the Argentine War of Independence General Manuel Belgrano was commanding a battle near Rosario. He noticed that both the Crown's forces and the independence forces were using the same colours (Spain's yellow and red). After realizing this, Belgrano created a new flag using the colours that were used by the Criollos during the May Revolution in 1810. However, recent research and studies would indicate that the colours were chosen from the coat of arms of the House of Bourbon the royal family of Spain, and that during the May Revolution the colour used by the criollos was a red piece of cloth, as pointed by the popular historian Felipe Pigna. Also, apparently the original flag was quite different from the current one: it had two vertical stripes, one blue and the other one white. The flag was first flown, for the soldiers to swear allegiance to it, on 27th February 1812, on the Batería Libertad (Liberty Battery), by the Paraná River. Belgrano dispatched a letter addressed to the First Junta, informing them of the newly created flag. The Junta, fearing the Spanish Crown, sent a warning to Belgrano not to fight under the flag, but by the time the reply had arrived, Belgrano had moved on, and was flying the flag on the battlefield. The letter contained the following passage translated from Spanish "It being necessary to hoist a flag, and not having one, I ordered one made, white and light blue in the colours of the national cockade; I hope Your Excellencies will find it worthy of approval." The flag was hoist for the first time in Buenos Aires atop the Saint Nicholas of Bari Church on 23rd August 1812 (where nowadays the Obelisco is located). After the declaration of independence on 9th July 1816, the flag was adopted as a symbol by the Argentine National Congress.

Antarctica - Argentinean Claim

Argentina has also made a claim for territory in Antarctica and like Chile has incorporated territory outside the region. The claim known as Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur includes Tierra del Fuego (on mainland South America), the Argentine claim to the Antarctic continent and the Argentine claim to the Falkland Islands, the South Georgia Islands and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Malvinas, Islas Georgias del Sur, Islas Sandwich del Sur). It is known that Argentina, in order to add strength to it’s claim over the British territories of Falklands Islands and South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands and also to it’s Antarctic claim (25°W to 74°W, overlapping the British and Chilean claims), joined all these territories to it’s (undisputed) mainland province of “Fireland”.

In June 1999 a celebrated contest about new flag of the province of Tierra del Fuego was held. The winning flag was designed by Teresa Beatriz Martínez, an architect from Entre Ríos. The design is called “the Albatross“. The orange part, fire colour, stands for the geography of the larger island. The blue colour stands for the sky and the sea surrounding this province and bonds it to the national flag; the stars of the Southern Cross, which guided so many travellers to these regions, also symbolize the southern location of the islands and other territorial elements that make up the province. The Albatross is a local bird and its flight symbolizes freedom.