Commerce and private ships were authorised to use their own designs to represent France, but were forbidden to fly the white ensign.ĭuring the French Revolution, in 1794, the blue, white and red Tricolore was adopted as the official national flag. Smaller ships might have used other standards, such as a fleur-de-lis on white field. The French Navy used a plain white ensign for ships of the line. The French troops fighting in the American Revolutionary War fought under the white flag. It would be featured on a white scarf attached to the regimental flag as to recognise French units from foreign ones and avoid friendly fire incidents. The white color was also used as a symbol of military command, by the commanding officer of a French army. The Alids and the Fatimid dynasty also used white in opposition to the Abbasids, who used black as their dynastic color.ĭuring the period of the Ancien Régime, starting in the early 17th century, the royal standard of France became a plain white flag as a symbol of purity, sometimes covered in fleur-de-lis when in the presence of the king or bearing the ensigns of the Order of the Holy Spirit. The Umayyad dynasty (661–750) used white as their symbolic color as a reminder of Muhammad's first battle at Badr. In 1625, Hugo Grotius in De jure belli ac pacis (On the Law of War and Peace), one of the foundational texts in international law, recognized the white flag as a "sign, to which use has given a signification" it was "a tacit sign of demanding a parley, and shall be as obligatory, as if expressed by words". Portuguese chronicler Gaspar Correia (writing in the 1550s), claims that in 1502, an Indian ruler, the Zamorin of Calicut, dispatched negotiators bearing a "white cloth tied to a stick", "as a sign of peace", to his enemy Vasco da Gama. Its use may have expanded across continents, e.g.
Īustralian soldier looking for wounded under protection of a white flag, Western Front (World War I) The color white was used generally to indicate a person was exempt from combat heralds bore white wands, prisoners or hostages captured in battle would attach a piece of white paper to their hat or helmet, and garrisons that had surrendered and been promised safe passage would carry white batons. The white flag was widely used in the Middle Ages in Western Europe to indicate an intent to surrender. Before that time, Roman armies would surrender by holding their shields above their heads. In the Roman Empire, the historian Cornelius Tacitus mentions a white flag of surrender in AD 109. The first mention of the usage of white flags to surrender is made during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25–220). There have been numerous reported cases of such behavior in conflicts, such as combatants using white flags as a ruse to approach and attack enemy combatants, or killings of combatants attempting to surrender by carrying white flags. The improper use of the flag is forbidden by the rules of war and constitutes a war crime of perfidy. Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague II) July 29, 1899 Hague Convention of 1899, Laws of War : He has a right to inviolability, as well as the trumpeter, bugler, or drummer, the flag-bearer, and the interpreter who may accompany him. The use of the flag to request parley is included in the Hague Conventions of 18:Īn individual is considered a parlementaire who is authorized by one of the belligerents to enter into communication with the other, and who carries a white flag. Persons carrying or waving a white flag are not to be fired upon, nor are they allowed to open fire. A white flag signifies to all that an approaching negotiator is unarmed, with an intent to surrender or a desire to communicate. It is also flown on ships serving as cartels. It is also used to symbolize surrender, since it is often the weaker party which requests the negotiation. The white flag is an internationally recognized protective sign of truce or ceasefire, and for negotiation. A white flag displayed during the Ottoman surrender of Jerusalem to the British on 9 December 1917
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