Historical flags of the Dominican Republic

Last modified: 2001-06-08 by antonio martins
Keywords: dominican republic | haiti | cross (white) | trinitarian movement | star (white) | stars: 10 | doubt |
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• 1844: revolution and occupation
• 1861-1865: second spanish rule

• Dominican Republic
• Haiti: Historical flags

The flag of the Dominican Rebublic has its roots in the Haitian Flag of the early 19th century, a horizontal bicolor of blue over red. The leader of the movement for independence from Haiti, Juan Pablo Duarte, founded a secret society, the Trinitarian on 16 July 1838. This name referred to their religion as well as to the organization of their society, which limited association between members to cells of three individuals. As a symbol, they took the Haitian flag and superimposed a white cross on it. After several unsuccessful attempts, independence was finally achieved on 27 February 1844. By then the flag of the Trinitarians was modified slightly by the reversal of the colors at the fly end of the flag, making the flag as known today.
Dave Martucci, 12 Oct 1999

Acording to [smi75], the current civil flag originated in 1839, by superimposing a white cross over the ocupant Haiti's blue over red. Primarily the flag of the Trinitaria movement (also with ten white stars), it become the newly independent Dominican Repepublic flag in 1844, when the stars were removed. In a later unspecified date, the fly quarters were flipped to the current "quartered" position.
Ant�nio Martins, 20 Feb 1998

The Eastern part of Santo Domingo island asked to be again a Spanish colony in 1861. I infer from this that the former colonial Spanish flag was re-hoisted. This second spanish rule in Santo Domingo was between 18-3-1861 and 11-7-1865.
Jaume Oll�, 02 Nov 1997