Monaco vs Indonesia
Monaco and Indonesia both feature a horizontal red stripe over a white stripe. The difference is geometric: Monaco's flag has an unusual 4:5 aspect ratio (nearly square), while Indonesia's flag uses a standard, longer 2:3 aspect ratio.
Monaco
Indonesia
| Spec | Monaco | Indonesia |
|---|---|---|
| Proportions | 4:5 | 2:3 |
| Adopted | 1881 | 1945 |
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Which flag is Monaco?
Monaco's Royal House vs. A 700-Year-Old Javanese Banner
When Indonesia proclaimed independence from Dutch colonial rule on August 17, 1945, it raised the Sang Saka Merah Putih. Monaco's government immediately took notice. The Principality of Monaco had formally codified its red-and-white horizontal flag sixty-four years earlier under Prince Charles III, and the Grimaldi family had used alternating red and white heraldic diamonds since the 14th century.
Monaco filed an official diplomatic protest with the new Indonesian republic, arguing that the identical colors and orientation would cause confusion in international maritime and state affairs. Indonesia refused to change its design, demonstrating that red and white had flown across the archipelago since the 1293 Majapahit empire, long before modern European vexillology had standardized.
Faced with historical evidence and Indonesia's immense geographic scale, Monaco dropped the complaint. Today, the flags coexist. When rendered accurately per national law, Monaco's flag is distinctly squarer than Indonesia's standard maritime proportions.
Telling them apart
- Aspect ratio is legal law, not a printing suggestion. Monaco's 4:5 ratio makes it one of the few non-standard rectangular flags in Europe.
- Indonesia's red symbolizes human physical courage and earthly vitality, while white stands for spiritual purity.
- Monaco's red and white derive purely from feudal livery, matching the shield of the Princely Palace.
Questions
Is Poland's flag related to Monaco and Indonesia?
Poland uses the same two colors, but in reverse: white stripe on top, red stripe on the bottom. Singapore also uses red over white, but adds a white crescent and five stars in the canton.
Does Monaco ever use 2:3 proportions?
At international sporting events like the Olympics, organizers frequently stretch Monaco's flag into 2:3 to fit uniform flagpoles, inadvertently erasing the legal difference between the two nations.