Where did the traditional AH.com country colours come from?

qazse

Gone Fishin'
So I'm honestly not sure where to put this thread (a discussion of where the traditional AH.com country colours came from), so if one of the mods could move it to the proper forum, that'd be appreciated.

Anyway...

I'm sure we all know there all a small grouping of colours that are basically tradition for a nation of the site, such as the UK's pink or France's blue. I wanted to try and compile the reasoning behind these traditional colours in this thread. Here goes!

United Kingdom - Pale red. The UK was always shown as red on contemporary maps, as red was the colour of British uniforms. Over time, the red ink tended to pale to a shade of pink. The usage of this pale red became firmly cemented following the rise of the Soviet Union, as blood-red was... well, the communist colour.

France - Blue. French military uniforms were blue.

Germany - Grey, as German uniforms were grey.

United States - Teal. This continues the uniform theme. American uniforms are blue, but since France already has pure blue the US is given a teal shade to differentiate it.

Republican Russia - Green, to continue the uniform theme.

Monarchist Russia - Gold to evoke the Tsarist flag.

Soviet Union - Blood-red for reasons I do not need to state.

Italy - Brown, taken from the atlas of World War II by National Geographic.

The Netherlands - Orange to evoke the Prince's Flag.

Saudi Arabia - Green, as green is a traditional Islamic colour.

I'm still looking for explanations for:
  • Belgium (purple)
  • Monarchist/Republican China (green)
  • Communist China (hot pink)
  • India (mauve)
  • Poland (brown)
  • Spain (gold)
  • Portugal (green)
  • Japan (yellow)
 
Last edited:
Gokbay

Gokbay

qazse said:
I'm still looking for explanatios for:
  • Belgium (purple)
  • Monarchist/Republican China (green)
  • Communist China (hot pink)
  • India (mauve)
  • Poland (brown)
  • Spain (gold)
  • Portugal (green)
  • Japan (yellow)
Click to expand...

China: Probably association with Jade.
Communist China: Something reddish for communism but not pure red as USSR has already taken that.
Spain: Both the flag and all that gold they took from their colonies in the Americas.
Portugal: Probably the modern flag?
 

Lalli

qazse said:
still looking for explanatios for:
  • Belgium (purple)
  • Monarchist/Republican China (green)
  • Communist China (hot pink)
  • India (mauve)
  • Poland (brown)
  • Spain (gold)
  • Portugal (green)
  • Japan (yellow)
Click to expand...

Belgium: I think that it is from ribbon used by Belgian kings on official events.
Monarchist/Republican CHina: No tsure. Perhaps from jade.
Communist China: color of communism bit edited so you can tell difference with USSR/communist Russia.
India: Mauve seems being important color for Hinduism. I think that one of major gods is mauve colored I think.
Poland: Not any idea.
Spain: Not idea.
Portugal: From current flag.
Japan: Probably based to some stereotypes.
 

blsssd

Lalli said:
Japan: Probably based to some stereotypes.
Click to expand...
no, its from the imperial seal of japan
1604418189559.png

{/SPOILER]
 
Last edited:
Bob Hope

Bob Hope

qazse said:
So I'm honestly not sure where to put this thread (a discussion of where the traditional AH.com country colours came from), so if one of the mods could move it to the proper forum, that'd be appreciated.

Anyway...

I'm sure we all know there all a small grouping of colours that are basically tradition for a nation of the site, such as the UK's pink or France's blue. I wanted to try and compile the reasoning behind these traditional colours in this thread. Here goes!

United Kingdom - Pale red. The UK was always shown as red on contemporary maps, as red was the colour of British uniforms. Over time, the red ink tended to pale to a shade of pink. The usage of this pale red became firmly cemented following the rise of the Soviet Union, as blood-red was... well, the communist colour.

France - Blue. French military uniforms were blue.

Germany - Grey, as German uniforms were grey.

United States - Teal. This continues the uniform theme. American uniforms are blue, but since France already has pure blue the US is given a teal shade to differentiate it.

Republican Russia - Green, to continue the uniform theme.

Monarchist Russia - Gold to evoke the Tsarist flag.

Soviet Union - Blood-red for reasons I do not need to state.

Italy - Brown, taken from the atlas of World War II by National Geographic.

The Netherlands - Orange to evoke the Prince's Flag.

Saudi Arabia - Green, as green is a traditional Islamic colour.

I'm still looking for explanations for:
  • Belgium (purple)
  • Monarchist/Republican China (green)
  • Communist China (hot pink)
  • India (mauve)
  • Poland (brown)
  • Spain (gold)
  • Portugal (green)
  • Japan (yellow)
Click to expand...
America is more likely from the uniform colours worn at West Point - Dark Grey
 
Baconheimer

Baconheimer

I'd recommend reaching out to some of the old-timers. I only got here in 2011, but I experienced some large fights over whether Russia should always be green or gold (Greensheviks vs. Goldilocks faction) From what I understand that was a common sort of discussion before 2012ish when things cooled off.
 
Gokbay

Gokbay

I think some of the colours don't really have reasons.

When the early colour schemes were being created some nations were created with symbolic colours. But since many countries reuse colours this couldn't work for all countries. So with some nations the early mapmakers simply chose colours that seemed good to them that were distinct from the colours of their neighbours.

These colours became traditional with time.
 
Tomislav Addai

Tomislav Addai

Hungarian green - Hungary is one of the few nations to have a green stripe in its flag in Central Europe. Possible alternate explanation. The Hungarian core regions are Lowlands, and lowlands are depicted green on maps, while highlands are yellowish and brownish on maps.
Latvia - from the prevailing colour on its flag.
Poland- pink as red plus white equals pink.
 

qazse

Gone Fishin'
Just thought that as the original poster I might pick up this discussion again. I've compiled a table with various shades for notable countries and some explanations:
ucs colours.png
 
Alex Richards

Alex Richards

Donor
I'm absolutely certain that Belgium being purple is just because originally that was used for 'minor states' instead of 'unorganised areas' (with the latter being white) and then it inherited it.

Honestly the majority of the colours are down to 'right we need a colour for Austria that's going to contrast with the neighbours' and the like. Most schemes which try to be more consistent with reasoning for having certain colours end up running into the issue of Red/White/Blue being an absurdly common combination of colours for national emblems/flags etc. anyway.
 

Codae

This is speculative, but maybe Norway's color was conceived by variation from Denmark's (or vice-versa)? I do recall that the Czech color was originally intended as a "personal union with Austria" color.
 
Gokbay

Gokbay

qazse said:
Just thought that as the original poster I might pick up this discussion again. I've compiled a table with various shades for notable countries and some explanations:
View attachment 757610
Click to expand...

Sweden has a basis in flag and uniforms.

Denmark and Norway are probably somewhat based on the Swedish colour, to have all of Scandinavia be kinda similar/share a theme.

I think Church lands in HRE are depicted as a similar colour to the AH Vatican colour in some sources as well.
 
Baconheimer

Baconheimer

Somewhat off-topic, but does anyone else remember the period when Napoleonic French client states used the light lavender color that is frequently used for Quebec? That was a weird trend, but I like the way it looked.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top
Top