The State of Bulgaria is another of the creations of the Berlin Treaty. It is governed by a prince who is nominally under the suzerainty of Turkey. Its war flag is shown in Fig. [241]; the mercantile flag has no leonine canton, but is simply a tricolor of white, green, and red.
Having already dealt with the United States, we propose now to turn our attention to the other Governments of the New World. The simple and effective ensign of Chili is represented in Fig. [161]. This flag is used both by the Chilian men-of-war and by the vessels of the mercantile marine. Fig. [157] is so much of the pendant of a man-of-war as the limits of our page will permit. The Chilian Jack is the blue canton and white star of Fig. [161], treated as a distinct
flag, and the flags of the various naval ranks are also blue with a varying number of white stars.
Fig. [164] is the merchant flag of New Granada; the Government ensign has in addition the shield of arms in the centre of the blue stripe. It will be observed that the colours in this tricolor are the same as those of Roumania, Fig. [242], only differently disposed. New Granada is composed of nine small States, and in 1863 these bound themselves into a closer confederation, and changed their collective name from New Granada to that of the United States of Colombia, and adopted a tricolor of yellow, blue, and red, only disposed horizontally instead of as in Fig. [164], vertically. This sounds identical with the flag of Venezuela, but in the centre of the Colombian flag is placed a different device, and the yellow stripe takes up half the space, the other two being only half its width. Fig. [165] is the flag of Uruguay, a State that was formerly a province of Brazil, but declared its independence in the year 1825. The next flag on our plate, Fig. [166], is the war ensign of Guatemala: the shield in the centre bears a scroll with the words "Libertad 15 de Setiembre, 1821," surmounted by a parrot, surrounded by a wreath, and having behind it crossed rifles and swords. The merchant flag is the plain blue, white, blue, without the shield. In the year 1525 the country was conquered by Don Pedro de Alvarado, one of the companions of Cortes, and it remained subject to Spain until 1821, when it gained its independence, the "Libertad" of the scroll. It then went in vigorously for several years of civil war, and the outcome of this was that the country known under Spanish rule as Guatemala, a country embracing all Central America, split up in 1839 into five Republics, all absolutely independent of each other, viz., Guatemala, San Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
The next flag, Fig. [167], is the ensign of Costa Rica: the one represented is that of the Merchant Service. The war ensign differs from it in having in the centre the arms of the State, surrounded on either side by a trophy of three flags, and beneath all a wreath. Fig. [168], the flag of Paraguay, is very suggestive of the colours of Holland, though the device in the centre serves to differentiate it. Paraguay is the only State in America that has no sea-board, and therefore no Mercantile Marine.
Brazil, discovered by the Portuguese in 1500, remained in their possession until a revolutionary struggle in the year 1821 ended in favour of the Brazilians, when an Empire was shortly afterwards established. Compared to the other States of South America, it has passed through long periods of rest and prosperity, but of late years its political position has been one of considerable uncertainty, the Emperor having been dismissed and the rival
ambitions for the Presidentship leading to civil war. These political changes have necessarily produced modifications in the flag. The present flag, Fig. [169], is not altogether unlike that of the late Empire, though in this latter case the yellow diamond on the green ground held a shield and Imperial crown, flanked by sprays of coffee and tobacco. In the present flag this yellow diamond has a blue sphere spotted over with stars and a white band running across it, that bears in blue letters the legend Ordem e progresso.[[81]] Fig. [173] is the upper portion of the man-of-war pendant, a blue ground with white stars. Fig. [169] is the ensign, both of the War and Merchant Navy of Brazil.
The yellow, blue, and red tricolor, Fig. [170], is the merchant ensign of Venezuela; the war flag has the same stripes, and in addition the shield of the arms of the State is placed on the yellow band at the staff corner. When the Spaniards arrived off the coast in the year 1499, they found on landing that some of the native Indians were living in huts built on piles, hence they called the country Venezuela, or little Venice.
Bolivia, formerly comprised in the Spanish Vice-Royalty of Colombia, derives its present name from Simon Bolivar, the leader of the revolution that gained it its freedom. Its commercial flag is shown in Fig. [171]; the war flag only differs in having the arms of the State placed in the centre of the red strip.
The familiar green, white, red of Italy is repeated in the flag of Mexico, but instead of the cross of Savoy, we have the eagle and serpent. The Mexican merchant ensign is the plain tricolor of green, white, red, the central device we see in Fig. [172] marking it as the war flag. Mexico was discovered in 1518, and conquered, with infamous cruelties, by Cortes. After a lengthened revolutionary struggle, the yoke of Spain was finally thrown off in 1829, and the independence of Mexico was recognised by all the great European Powers.