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- Only Nepal, Switzerland and the Vatican City have flags that are not rectangular.
- Nepal’s flag is two stacked triangles, while Switzerland’s and the Vatican City’s are squares.
- The rectangular shape of the flag is attributed to the mid 15th to mid 16th centuries.
- In this period, empires sent out their ships for trade and warfare to far-off places.
- And one of the most prominent and easiest ways to differentiate the ship of one empire from another was waving a flag.
- Soon, waving gave way to ships carrying the flags that would catch the wind and expand to show the emblems.
- A rectangular shape was considered to catch the wind better, so it became the preferred shape.
- This shape was also ideal because it was easy and cheap to manufacture.
- Bear in mind it was a time when science had not evolved so much to highlight the nuances as to what would be the optimal shape to make an impact.
- Soon this naval practice became a national practice.
- And once the identities were created, nations possibly didn’t have enough reasons to tamper with them.
Image courtesy of Lara Jameson through Pexels
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