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So France and the Benelux countries are the only countries that everybody agrees comprise "Western Europe".
Assuming that other countries place as much importance on their flag as Americans do is veering into /r/ShitAmericansSay territory...
While there might not be many events where flags are promoted, I think that many Europeans identify strongly with their national flag.

I'm pretty sure that many Brits are proud of the Union Jack, probably as many French are proud of the Tricolour, etc.

Heck, even countries which have been rather downtrodden such as Romania are starting to show stronger signs of patriotism and the national blue-yellow-red tricolor is popping up more and more.

Traditionally Germany belongs to eastern europe and Russia to the north.

Edit: seriously, downvotes? Before the east-west divide russia was considered north Europe because it lies so far up in the north. Germany was already seen as eastern Europe because Europe centered more around France. Even today the geographical center of Europe lies well into eastern Europe.

I don't agree with your statement but I agree it's not a cause to get downvoted. Russia stretched from the Baltic sea to the Black sea for a good part of history so calling Russia north Europe is wrong imo. And Germany was always center Europe
This article is quite ignorant of any history. It might be cool for preschoolers to find flags with similar geometry and colors, but making any conclusions without mentioning the historical context is wrong.

Why would "The Traditional view" be traditional when it represents just a fraction of the relevant history that shaped the culture of European countries? The same goes for "Historical and cultural divide".

Let's take Central Europe as an example - the "Traditional view" was valid for 45 years (during the Cold War) and does not hold for more than 25 years now. The article also dismisses roughly 300 years of the Habsburg Monarchy, 100 years of Austia-Hungary and the years preceding the Cold War.

These lightly ignored years are important when speaking of any cultural divide as tradesmen, craftsmen, students, etc. moved around the empires and exchanged goods and knowledge with each other. Travelling around European towns and villages shows how the builders and craftsmen influenced each other - in regions much larger than the current states.

Fun with flags.
What is Vexillology dr. Cooper?
Seems to be divided by geography. Germany is culturally a nordic country. Which makes it northern europe, not central or west.
> Germany is culturally a nordic country

On what grounds? There were a lot of states that went into the modern Germany, surely you're not saying they were all nordic.

Not an expert of German traditions, but there is a division between catholic and protestant areas that basically follows the border of the Roman empire. Going back 2000 years, before the Roman expansion, then maybe all of the current Germany nation was homogeneously nordic.
Dividing Europe based on language would make more sense: romance languages in the west, germanic in the centre and slavic in the east.
except of course romanian and moldovan are romance (very much east), as is Rumantsch (very much centre)
And of course our dear Western neighbors, the Hungarians, who are as odd-ball as the Fins and Estonians :)
> mankind did even get to the Moon with its flag

The US flag is the flag of Mankind? Interesting.

Well yes, a flag, one of many. It's ownership description via superset, it doesn't mean it's THE flag of mankind.
Which is why it shouldn't say "its (Mankind's) flag".

The USA (to its credit) dedicated the Apollo mission to Mankind (which Soviet cosmonauts were pleasantly surprised by) but the flag was planted as a symbol of the USA. (Other considered options, such as the flags of all countries, were rejected.)

The flags, if they still exist, are likely to be blank now anyway.

<The flags, if they still exist, are likely to be blank now anyway.>

Didn't at least one LRO photo show a clear shadow of a flag at one of the Apollo sites?

> It is interesting that [the flag of Monaco] was the subject of a diplomatic conflict with Indonesia as both flags are 100% identical even today.

They aren't identical; the dimensions are different.

Let's see how long it takes before people from neighboring countries start "fighting" :-) This article should be read with a grain of salt...