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The origin of the Estonian
flag dates back to 1881, when Estonian university students attempted
to form a fraternity. The students adopted blue, black and white as
the fraternity's colours.
The students' association dedicated the blue-black-white
horizontal striped flag on the 4th of June 1884.
The following years saw
the emergence of the flag as a national symbol. It was flown at both
the 1905 and 1917 Russian revolutions as a symbol of Estonian independence.
It was adopted as the
national flag in 1918, but was subsequently banned in 1940 after the
annexation of Estonia by the Soviet Union.
As the Soviet Union began
to collapse in the late 1980s, the blue-black-white flag re-emerged
as an Estonian symbol of independence and was again recognised as the
national flag in 1990.
The current design dates from the 16th of
November 1990. |
