- Flags of Napoleonic Italy
The Transpadane, Cispadane and Cisalpine Republics
When, in
1796 , the French Army led byNapoleon Bonaparte entered into Italy, both the new republic ("Repubblica Transpadana",Transpadane Republic ) and the military group attached to French army adopted the flags similar to the Italian tricolor. Probably, the colors have been chosen according to "Legione Lombarda" flag: it summedMilan city colors (red and white) to the green of Milan Civic Guard uniforms. The same colors were adopted by the "Legione Italiana", formed by soldiers coming from Emilia andRomagna .The first Italian tricolor was adopted on
7 January ,1797 , inReggio Emilia , as official flag of the "Repubblica Cispadana" (Cispadane Republic ). It was a horizontal tricolor, with red (top), white and green stripes; in the middle, an emblem composed by aquiver , accolade to a war trophy, with four arrows that symbolized the four provinces forming the "Po federation"; all within a crown of bay.The Italian Republic and the Kingdom of Italy
The "Repubblica Cispadana" and the "Repubblica Transpadana" merged into the "Repubblica Cisalpina" (
Cisalpine Republic ), which adopted the vertical Italian tricolor without emblem in1798 , even if in a square shape. The flag was maintained until1802 , after the republic was renamed "Repubblica Italiana" (Italian Republic); in 1802 a new square flag was adopted, with a red field carrying a white rhombus and a green square in the middle of the white rhombus.In
1799 , the Republic ofLucca came under French influence, and adopted as flag a green-white-red horizontal tricolor, up to1801 .After Napoleon became emperor, in
1805 , the "Repubblica Italiana" was turned into "Regno d'Italia" (Kingdom of Italy), ruled by Napoleon himself; the flag of the "Regno d'Italia" was the "Repubblica Italiana" flag in rectangular shape, with Napoleon's eagle on the central white square. This flag was in use until the abdication of Napoleon, in1814 .ee also
*
Coat of arms of Napoleonic Italy
*Flag of Italy
*Coat of arms of Italy
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