Capital

Paris

Continent

Europe

Flag adopted

1794

Designer

Not individually credited

France

Colors and meaning

• Blue #0055A4

  Paris, and one of the two historic colors of the city's militia cockade

• White #FFFFFF

  The historic French monarchy

• Red #EF4135

  Paris, the other color of the revolutionary cockade

Symbolism and history

The blue-white-red vertical tricolor, born from the cockade colors worn during the 1789 Revolution, became the direct design template for dozens of later tricolors worldwide, including Belgium's, Romania's and several Caribbean and African flags.

Closest-looking flags

• 

  Netherlands

  Its blue-white-red palette is shared, in horizontal form, by the Netherlands' and Luxembourg's flags, all tracing to overlapping 16th to 18th century European revolutionary and dynastic traditions.

• 

  Luxembourg

  Its blue-white-red palette is shared, in horizontal form, by the Netherlands' and Luxembourg's flags, all tracing to overlapping 16th to 18th century European revolutionary and dynastic traditions.

Further reading: Flag of France on Wikipedia