The US flag & UK flag contain the same colours & the same number of colours – is this deliberate? Anyone know?

According to a pamphlet from the US House of Representatives, “White signifies Purity and Innocence; Red, Hardiness and Valor; Blue signifies Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice.” There is no other official or semi-official symbolism that I could find. If you’re from London then you know the British flag is a merger of St. Andrew’s Cross, St. George’s Cross, and St. Patrick’s Cross. So no, I don’t think there was anything deliberate about the colors. The American revolutionaries most likely just picked the colors that were the most familiar to them.

it is believed that the US flag is an evolution of our British red ensign.

i assume you know what our UK flag looks like. in the time that the US flag was created our Union flag did not include the red cross from the irish flag… it was just england and scotland union.

at sea we have different ensigns depending on what organisation your part of.

Our red ensign is a Union flag canton (ltop left corner) and red field (rest of the flag)

if you add 6 white stripes to the field of our red ensign (of the time with ireland cross) you get a flag with a union flag canton and 13 red and white stripes… this flag is called the Grand Union flag – or Continental Colors. it was the flag that was used on and after July 4th 1776.- it was the 1st official flag of the United States.

however it was a rather confusing flag. why declare independence from Britain then still have their flag in th canton of the official flag of the new nation?? rather contradictory!!

so on June 14 1777 a new flag was raised with 13 white stars on a blue canton with a red and white stripey field

this i believe is a good explanation of why the colours of our flags are the same.

one of the people above describes the meaning of the colours.. but these are interpretations only.. colours of the US flag were not chosen because of those meanings.. they were made afterwards and are not official definations.

Most flags of the world have red, white and blue on them in some way or other.

But if you notice that countries like Australia and New Zealand have small Union Jacks on them, you’ve found Commonwealths of England.