At first glance, the Chilean and Texas flags look almost identical. They can be easily confused since they each contain the same elements: a lone star on a blue background and horizontal red and white bands.
Which Flag Came First?
Chile’s flag was born of a storied history and went through several versions before arriving at a form very similar to today’s in October, 1817:
Due to the complex design of this flag, it was soon thereafter simplified into the form we know today:
The Texas flag was officially adopted on January 24, 1839, as the final national flag of the Republic of Texas.
Chile’s flag predates the Texan flag by over 21 years and clearly came first.
What is the difference between flags?
The main difference between the Chile and Texas flags is the left side of the flag: the lone star on the blue background.
The blue vertical stripe on the Texas flag extends from the top to the bottom of the flag. The lone star sits in the middle of this area:
The Chilean flag, on the other hand, has its lone star in the upper left corner. The bottom red horizontal stripe, stretches the length of the flag:
On at least one occasion the flag of Chile was flown over a Texas public building by mistake. It stayed up for a long time before someone noticed “something did not look quite right”
Links? I tried googling for the story on the Chilean flag being flown over a Texas public building by mistake, but couldn’t find any information on it. The only result I got was, strangely, another website where someone named “Billy” was making the same claim.
Justin, I think Bill Chase is full of shiat! Don’t mess with Texas, Biatches!
I discied to find out what the differance between the chillaen flag and the flag of texas when I saw a story about the chilaen miners that are trapeed beneeth the erth where I saw a flag that looked a lot like the texas flag and but I sad wat a minuat this is chille not texas so what would a texas flag be doing in chellie. so to figuer out what the differances wer between the 2 flags I simly googeld it and heer I am a quik second later finding out the answer to my question ya whooo. I am glad this sit was heer when I needed to know what I wanted to know.
Learn how to spell!
For more information of flag of the chile:
http://simbolospatrios.cl
Saludos
Lol wow I had no idea about the flag on the Taxes building and I didn’t even know that there was a flag close to the Texas lol. I’m from Texas so yeah so don’t be hatin on Texas!!
In more than one occasion, the Texas flag was flown in Chile by mistake.
Also, the Chilean embassy had flown the Texas flag by mistake in DC. ooops!
Actually, neither event happened. Neither Texas nor Chile ever flew the others flag by mistake. It’s an urban legend.
At any rate, both flags are beautiful and should be proudly flown!
Awesome reply Wes. I am Chilean and I love my flag. I have always liked the Texan flag as well as it’s so similar, they are both very vibrant flags. 🙂 .
I don’t know about flying the wrong flag over a Texas public building, but an absentee ballot for Atascosa County in Texas had been using a picture of the Chilean flag for years.
Not urban myth: The absentee ballot story is true. Another interesting true story is that a small school district in rural Texas accidentally flew the wrong flag for a week before someone corrected them. It wasn’t widely reported, but is a famous incident in Texas education circles.
I know as Chilean Blood that Texas flags was made for a guy who was married with a chilean lady who was homesick about her country( Chile) so her husband in orden to let her feel at home made the Texas Flag similiar to Chilian One ..in th end it is a romantic story in 1838..AWWw
Actualy texas and chilean are brothers of liberty, so their flags are similar.
“The national flag of Chile, also known as La estrella solitaria (Spanish for “the lone star”),[1] consists of two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red and a blue square the same height as the white band at the hoist-side end of the white band, which bears a white five-pointed star in the center. It was adopted on October 18, 1817.
In few words: Texas not only stole the Chilean flag, but its motto (The Lone Star).
Just for the record, never,ever in Chile the Texan flag flew as the Chilean flag.
Los texanos se “inspiraron” en el pabellón naval de los barcos chilenos de la época que llegaban por la minería y que es igualito a la bandera de Texas.
Well Im chilean and I knew this a lot time before, but Im sure mostly of chilean people dont know texas flag as well as texas people dont know chilean flag, even when it is a country. People needs more general culture in nowadays, I mean I know american, european even some african and asian flags (there are a lot). Fact is both flags are beautiful, but chilean one is better 😀 Its sad that people needs a tragedy or a supernatural event to know a country.
I’m Texan. And I’ve known Chile’s flag and am familiar with almost all the other flags in the US and the world as well. And I’ve been familiar with them for a long, long time.
I never looked this up, but to me, Texas’s flag seems to have been designed with the United States flag in mind. As if to symbolize unity with the country in addition independence. Texas flag looks as if it comes from the area of the United States Flag where the star in the bottom corner of the blue space can be seen.
I don’t think Texas was trying to copy Chile… it was just coming up with a very powerful symbolic gesture based on the flag of the country its in.
@Terrance – I agree. From what I’ve read, both the Chilean and Texan flags were inspired by the United States flag.
All those who live in Texas, I am not hating, but the Chilean flag came first! so let’s all stop saying Chile stole your flag. I agree with Terrance’s comment whole-heartedly!
Chilean flag was first. Texas stole the flag like they stole the Mexican land.
We defeated Mexico fair and square, long live Texas
I was a little bit confused about the flags of Texas, Chile and Cuba. But now I know the difference and came to the conclusion that both the flags(excluding Cuba) stood to the summit of their respective dignity and honor. The emphasis should not be on ‘which came first’ but we should consider them as supreme within their respective spheres.
I’m not saying that Texas INTENTIONALLY copied the Chilean flag, but it sure APPEARS that they stole it. Aw hell, what do I care… I live in Georgia!!! :)))
Someone also stole ‘Valparaiso’ and named a tiny little place in the US after it. They must have run out ideas…
Either that or they really adore Chile (sigh…! I do!) and want a bit of this and that (they obviously can find it on a map!)
In someone’s words and… errr… only as a side note…
“In the beginning of time, God created the wonders of the world. When he was finished, however, he saw that he had many leftover pieces. He had parts of rivers and valleys, of oceans and lakes, of glaciers and deserts, of mountains and forests, and of meadows and hills. Rather than to let such beauty go to waste, God put them all together and cast them to the most remote corner of the earth.
And THIS is how Chile was born.”
Regards
Xim
But… what can I say, I also like the States (they don’t copy everything, people, only what they like to death).
I have a friend from Chile and when I remarked about the similarities he also said that the man who designed the Texas flag was married to a Chilean woman and that the Chilean flag was the inspiration for the Texas flag. In the 1830’s the world was not the small place it is today and most people in Texas had no idea where Chile was or what it’s flag looked like.
Eddy: “Texas stole the flag like they stole the Mexican land”
You should actually pick up a book and not listen to the indoctrination bullcrap your teaxhers are telling you. The state of Texas did not steal the Chile flag, when the state won its independence from Mexico and Santa Anna (keyword…WON!!!) the people wanted a flag the represented liberty and independance but was also the same color as the USA flag. They replicated the chile flag out of respect of what it stood for and it just so happend to be the same color as the USA flag. This is all common knowledge…
Article about a mix up that happened
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/761511
My research says a woman created the Texas flag…
Y’all know when the republic of Texas was created after we won Indipendence in Texas, they couldn’t just look up the Chilean flag, they created this because it symbolizes our great country( or state of Texas to y’all ), so our founding fathers in Texas didn’t do it to cheat, or steal, they thought this was a good flag, so they went with it.
There is no denying that the Texan and Chilean flags are similar, although I think there is another difference that nobody seems to have mentioned. To my eyes, the blue and red in the Chilean flag both seem to be a bit lighter than the colors in the Texan flag. I would be interesting to know whether the colors have been officially specified in terms of Pantone codes — if so, this point could quickly be answered. Of course, before Pantone printing, the point was a moot one, with ‘blue’ and ‘red’ depending on the flag-maker and the locally available organic dies. In any case, flags bleach in the sun.
There are several other flags that are either easily confused or that show strong similarities. For example: (1) Poland/Indonesia; (2) Australia/New Zealand; (3) Cuba/Puerto Rico/Catalonia (in this case, the Catalan flag is the independence ‘Estelada’ [the starred flag]), to mention just a few.
Correction: “It would be interesting…”
I totally agree with Terrance so let’s not fight that Chile/Texas stole Texas/Chile’s flag.
Before you start work on taking over the world learn how to spell first