AH.com Official Flag Contest: Round 1

[Highlander]

Alright everyone, the first round is here!

How it works is we give you the challange, and you design a flag around it. Only post entries here - NO CHATTING! If you have any questions please post them in the designated thread. The challange will last a week, ending next Tuesday at Midnight. At the end of the contest, Magnificate and I will choose which one we like the best.


Here is your challange, should you choose to except:

Teutonic Knights stayed in Hungary/Balkans region instead of moving to Prussia. Teutonic State created clashed many times with Ottoman Empire, but eventually fell. Make a flag of modern successor state to this Teuton state. Explain the symbolism.


Good Luck!

 

[Nicole]

Flag of the Teutonic Special RSO (Robotnik Socjalista Okręg, Worker's Socialist District if the interweb can be trusted), a district of the Greater Polish Socialist Union, which stretches across Eastern Europe from Prusy to the Karpathia. The district roughly covers large parts of Transylvania and some neighboring parts of Hungary. The primary languages of the district are German and Rumanian.
The Crescent and Cross stand for the two major religions of the region, Christianity, and Islam. After the Ottoman conquest, a large number of people converted to Islam. Many of these reversed after the Polano-Silesian Commonwealth took the region, but Muslims are still a substantial minority.

 

[Sovereign12]

The Flag of the Teutonic Republic of Bulgaria.

Nicholas von Renys carried the banner of the Culmerland troops for the Teutonic Order and stood fast with his troops. (In this TL he did not lower the banner prematurely, which was considered a signal for retreat that contributed to the defeat of the Knights.)

After the defeat of the Order at Battle of Grunwald by Polish-Lithuanian forces, the Order was in financial troubles. The Order was offered sanctuary in what remained of Bulgaria around the town of Sozopol. Many of the Order took this oppurtunity as a fresh start, especially those of the Lizard League which von Renys had founded.

Once in Sozopol, they were able to fend off the Ottomans. The order within Sozopol stayed small for about 50 years, then the uprising of Greece took place and the Order went on the offensive. With support from Poland, the Monastic Order of the Teutonic Knights was given financial and military support if they moved to Sozopol and ceded their lands, within Prussia, to the crown.

With this infuse of men and support the Bulgar Teutons were able to eventually take the city of Istanbul, now renamed Constantinopol. It was to the advantage of the other European powers to keep the Teutons in charge of the southern Balkans to prevent Ottoman iencroachment into Europe. Venice especially helped finance many ventures in this area.

In 1545 the Teutons crossed the Bosphorus and captured the Ottoman territory of Kocaeli. Over the intervening decades the Teutons were able to push the Ottoman back, until the Empire fell into civil war in 1855.

The White of the flag represents the purity of God. The Black is to remind all Teuton Bulgars the darkness they once existed in. The blue was added several years after the taking of the territory along the Bosphorus and Sea of Marmara. The center cross is the symbol of the order itself. The upper cross is the cross of the Catholic Church, while the lower is the cross of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

 

[Glen]

The Flag of Transylvania -

The Teutonic Order had its origins in the Crusades and first developed in Acre. However, with the change in fortune for the Holy Lands, their area of activity shifted to the Balkans. During the 12th and 13th centuries, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights worked with the royalty of Hungary to secure the northern Balkans for Catholicism. By the end of the 14th century, the Teutonic Order had been granted rule of all of Transylvania by the King of Hungary, and had gained sway over Wallachia, Moldava, and the Slavic territories to the West. With the crisis of the Hungarian succession in the mid-15th century, the Teutonic Order was now fully autonomous, only answering to the Pope.

The nascent Teutonic Empire entered a new phase with the fall of the Byzantines to the Turk, and the new threat of Mohammedism faced by the Teutonic Empire. For centuries, the two fought over the Balkans with a savagery that would become famous for centuries to come.

The 18th century saw the final collapse of the Teutonic Empire under a renewed Turkish onslaught. However, the Muslim Empire itself was on its last legs, and by the close of the 19th century, a slew of Balkan states won their autonomy or outright independence, including the last region to fall, Transylvania.

The flag of modern day Transylvania represents the land, its hisory and its people. Dominated by a Teutonic Cross (minimalist Grand Master version) that quarters the white field, in the upper left field is depicted a turul, the legendary falcon symbolizing the Magyar people (in the style of the Magyar nationalist re-awakening), the upper right field depicts the sun and moon of the Szeklers, the lower left field holds the symbol of the Siebenburgen of the Saxons, and in the lower right field is an oak tree representing the land itself.

 

[euio]

The flag of the Teutonic Union, 1800.

The black cross stands for the Teutonic Knights, while the red trim stands for the fight for freedom from the Ottoman Empire. The coat of arms of the Teutonic Knights is in the center of the cross and the smaller cross in the corner stands for Christianity.

 

[euio]

The flag of the Teutonic Union, 1800.

1800 needs to be changed to 1950.

 

[Kidblast]

The Teutonic Order of Dubrovnik has its origins in the Thirteen Year's War that started in 1454. Grandmaster Stefan the Convert, fearing for the Order's safety, took many of the Knights and left Prussia on a fleet of 30 ships.

Eventually the fleet after a year at sea managed to find refuge in the Republic of Ragusa, which was under attack from the Ottomans.

The Order fortified the surrounding area, and the Ottomans were forced to retreat from the Republic. Stefan spent most of the next ten years fortifying and repelling attempts by the Ottomans to conquer the Republic.

Over the next 50 years, the Order overthrew the Republic and set up the Order of Dubrovnik which was one of the few holdouts to the Ottoman Empire. However, Dubrovnik was finally conquered by Suleyman the Great in 1524 after a 4 year long siege. Fortunately, the Current Grandmaster Albert the Strong, escaped to Rome where the Order remained until the 1750s.

The Order eventually regained Dubrovnik in the 1750s, with the help of Hungary and it continued to be a vassal of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the 1920s, when the Empire was dissolved by Emperor Ferdinand II.

Today the Dubrovnik and the surrounding area remain one of the few Monastic states today.

The Red on the Flag stands for the Blood shed in protecting Christendom while the White symbolizes the Order's Purity and Christ's message of Peace.

The cross pattée was an old symbol of the Teutonic Order and is a reminder of the History of the present day Order. The coat of arms is the traditional coat of arms of the Kingdom of Croatia, which the present day Dubrovnik controls.

 

[Fire God]

The Kingdom of Siebenbürgen (or Transylvania) is a landlocked nation that gained its independence after a revolution against its Ottoman masters in the 1850s.

The cross symbolizes the Teutonic Order, the defenders of the region before Ottoman conquests, figure prominently on the upper left. The four icons represent the nation's diverse inhabitants: on the upper left is the star of the Saxons in Burzenland; the upper right is a cross symbolizing the Magyars; and the two bottom symbols are by the Szeklers with the sun and crescent moon.

The white stripe on the top represents God and the sky, while the blue stands for Transylvania, the white and red stripes allude to the Árpáds, who ruled the region when the Teutons came into Transylvannia.

 

[Haggis]

(I know it's not very good, I only have paint)

Zedinjena Kraljevina Slovenec in Srbov (The United Kingdom of Slovenes and Serbs) is a primarily Muslim country in Eastern Europe that after gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1913 set about to purge most of the Ottoman elements from its society; this included the adoption of Slovenian as an administrative language and an increasingly romantic view of the Slavic heritage that the people of the nation share.

Featured prominently are the star and crescent of Islam followed by the very cross of the Teutonic Order which rests upon the blue symbolizing the people of The United Kingdom of Slovenes and Serbs. Not also the use of red and white upper fields, the three colors taken together symbolize Slavic Unity in the face of adversity.

The flag has become so iconic that many people within the kingdom have gladly adopted the nickname Krizniki, Crossbearers, the very name that Christians in the region had given to the Teutonic Order so many years ago.

 

[Hapsburg]

Flag of the Teutonic Kingdom of Dacia. The black cross represents the Teutons and the surrounding shields represent the four original Vlach princedoms. The white eagle and symbols on the shield represent the particular heraldry of the original lands of which the current Kingdom now occupies. The three colors represent the main ethnic groups and constituent peoples: black-and-gold for the Germans (Teutons) and the gold-and-purple of the Vlachs (Dacia).

The Teutonic Order State, established by order of the King of Hungary and with the blessing of the Pope in 1221, in order to conquer the "heretic" (Eastern Orthodox) lands south of Hungary for Catholicism. At one time, the Order State encompassed the entirety of Wallachia, Moldavia, northern Bulgaria, and Serbia. One reason for this success was the influx of German catholics, enticed by Byzantine riches "liberated" from Orthodox lands. The German colonists soon outnumbered what native Vlachs remained, as most of the Vlachs were expelled.
However, the survivability of the Teutonic Order State was jeopardized when the Ottoman Empire conquered a significantly weakened Byzantine Empire in the 1450s. In order to consolidate his lands in the face of this growing enemy, the Grand Master of the Order, Ludwig von Erlich, declared himself Duke of Dacia, with the consent of the King of Hungary, in 1466, and secularized the Order and its lands into a monarchic duchy. However, high-ranking clergy who now became somewhat disenfranchised by Ludwig's consolidation conspired against him, and assassinated the Duke in 1468. The ensuing confusion and lack of coordinated leadership led to the conquest of the Order State in 1471. However, the Germanic population remained.
The region as occupied on-and-off by Hungarian, Austrian, and Ottoman armies over the next four centuries, until it definitively came under Austrian control in 1769. In the mid to late 1860s, as a result of Austria's defeat in the German Unification War by the Hanover-Bavaria--Saxony coalition, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Holy Roman Empire, began to crumble. The Austrian King divided his lands, and separated Austria, Bohemia-Hungary, and Dacia/Rumania into separate lands, ruled by his sons or brothers. The new Teutonic Kingdom of Dacia was formed, in the memory and basis in the old Order State, populated about half and half by ethnic Teutons and ethnic Vlachs. Over time, as the Ottoman Empire weakened in Europe, Dacia came to rule much of the northeast Balkans. Today, it encompasses much of the historical regions of Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, Dobruja, and Moesia, and has a democratic federal government with a constitutional monarchy, headed by King Louis VI, of the house of Habsburg. The population is primarily made up of Catholic Teutons, Eastern Orthodox Vlachs, and a minority of Eastern Orthodox Slavs.

 

[Isot the Terrible]

Flag of the Republic of Transylvania.

The Hapsburgs conquered Transylvania from the Ottomans in 1783. After WWI Transylvania declared independence but was invaded by Romania. The Romanians encountered fierce resistance and a peace settlement was agrees with Romania getting Southern Transylvania and the North becoming independent.

The Cross represents the Teutonic Knights and the German inhabitants. The Light Blue represents ethnic Romanians, as Romanian noble families in Transylvania used sky-blue the shield colour on their coats of arms. While the Red and white stripes are taken from the Hungarian Royal Arms and represents ethnic Magyars.

 

[Lordkraken]

As in OTL, the Ottoman Empire reaches its high water mark at the siege of Vienna, here in 1532. The Ottomans slowly loose ground until, in 1682, all of Ottoman Hungry and Transylvania falls to and is annexed by, the Hapsburg dynasty and becomes part of the Austrian Empire. Transylvania (officially known as East Hungry) won its independence from Austria in 1892 after the war of Prussian Ascension.

The East Hungarian flag consists of a crescent moon and a cross pattée, set against a yellow and black field.

The Crescent moon and star were the traditional insignia of the Ottoman Empire. After achieving independence from Austria, the large Muslim community within East Hungry agitated for a less overtly Christian
flag (the original flag had featured only the cross). The melding of the traditional symbols of the Teutonic Knights and the Ottoman Turks appealed to a resounding fifth of the population, and was therefor accepted.

The flag features the inverted Hapsburg/Austrian flag as its field. All stated formed from the Austrian Empire followed this practice.

 

[Athaboros]

Flag of the Teutonic Republic of Transdanubia

The Teutonic Republic of Transdanubia, whose modern borders were finalized in the Second Treaty of Milan in 1912 between the Ottoman Empire and the Northern Alliance, is a principally Muslim Magyar state with a strong sense of Teutonic national identity.

Mehmed III's Ottoman Empire saw vast territorial gains in what is known as the "surge" of 1517-1563, and his successor Murad III's vast administrative reforms led to a stable, if tense, balance of power in southeastern Europe. The Ottoman Empire, satisfied with its European borders, began to focus eastward, consolidating Muslim rule and creating a contiguous state that spanned from Marrakech to Indore. Its gradual decline into complacency, along with internal schisms and incompetent rulers, saw an Empire in 1906 that, although technologically advanced and still quite wealthy, lacked support from the majority of its people. Following the Northern Alliance's declaration of war in 1906 and the shocking setbacks faced during the Great Five Years' War, the Empire was reduced to only a marginal swath of territory from Anatolia to the Saudi Peninsula.

Among the many other republics set up in the aftermath of the war, the Teutonic Republic of Transdanubia was a primarily Muslim state with its social roots in old Ottoman traditions. Its transition to a republic, although shaky and pocked with revolts, eventually came to fruition and brought about a nation that is now centrally important in the balance of European power. Its location on the borders of the old Ottoman Empire allows it to function as an intermediary and meeting ground between Northern and Islamic powers.

The flag of the Republic includes traditional Teutonic colors, hearkening back to a time when the Teutonic Order was the last link between Latin Christianity and the Muslim world, but includes the cross of the Magyar people and the mirrored star and crescent present in the flag of nearly all of the released republics.

 

[Glen]

Just a bigger version of my entry.

 

[Highlander]

Alright, the first Official Flag Contest of AH.com is overwith.

Thanks to everyone who entered - we shall be announcing who one shortly!

 

[Highlander]

Drum roll please . . .





And the winner is . . .


SleepohalicAgent!!!

Congratulations, you have won the first round in the Official Flag Contest. And as with the Map Contest, the runner-up will be held secret until the end.

A big, big thanks to everyone who entered. I honestly had a very tough time deciding which one to do.

Stay tuned for the next challange.