Historical flags of the Dominican Republic

Last modified: 2003-10-10 by antonio martins
Keywords: dominican republic | haiti | cross (white) | trinitarian movement | star (white) | stars: 10 | doubt |
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• Flag of Trinitaria
• 1861-1865: second spanish rule
• The red-white-yellow flag

• Dominican Republic
• Haiti: Historical flags

Flag of Trinitaria

The flag of the Dominican Rebublic has its roots in the Haitian Flag of the early 19th century, a horizontal bicolor of blue over red. The leader of the movement for independence from Haiti, Juan Pablo Duarte, founded a secret society, the Trinitarians, on 16 July 1838. This name referred to their religion as well as to the organization of their society, which limited association between members to cells of three individuals.
Dave Martucci, 12 Oct 1999

On 16 july 1838 the Trinitaria movement was founded, adopted the Haitian flag with a cross (the cross of Konstantin the Great of Byzanz!). The flag was hoisted on 27 feb 1844 when independence was declared, because the dominican part did not accept Haitian president Boyer. The new design came in use on 6 nov 1844.
Ralf Stelter, 21 Jan 2001

What does 10 stars represent?
Nozomi Kariyasu, 28 Jan 2001

According to Corre’s 2001 article [cor01a], the members of the secret society Trinitaria allied to Haitian liberals to form a common front against (Haitian) Boyer’s regime, thus explaining the “Haitian” origin of the Trinitaria flag. This Trinitaria flag thought to be the origin of the Dominican flag is shown in one source (in [stb65], plate 25, flag #871, erroneously captioned «Dominica (English Western Colonies)») as an horizontally divided blue-red flag with a white cross in the center, four white stars placed vertically along the hoist, two white stars placed above and below the cross, respectively, and four white stars placed vertically along the hoist.
Ivan Sache, 30 Jun 2001

This flag is shown on both the 1862 Bromme flag atlas [bmm62], and the 1864 Johnson flag chart [jow63]; Bromme showing is as "Republ. Dominca" and Jonhson (incorrectly) as "Dominica".
Devereaux Cannon, 30 Jun 2001

Inaccurate depiction from [cor01a]

I confirm that my image, made after the one published in [cor01a], is indeed different from Mark’s one, made from the primary source, [stb65].
Ivan Sache, 01 Jul 2001

Steenbergen [stb65] shows the cross not widening so much as in Ivan’s image, the horizontal arms are a bit longer then the vertical arms, and the edges are a bit rounded.
Mark Sensen, 30 Jun 2001

Extended cross (up to 1844)

Acording to [smi75b] and [smi80], the cross of the Trinitaria flag was later extended to the edges, and then the colours were reversed.
Ralf Stelter, 21 Jan 2001

After several unsuccessful attempts, independence was finally achieved on 27 February 1844. By then the flag of the Trinitarians was modified slightly by the reversal of the colors at the fly end of the flag, making the flag as known today.
Dave Martucci, 12 Oct 1999

1861-1865: second spanish rule

The Eastern part of Santo Domingo island asked to be again a Spanish colony in 1861. I infer from this that the former colonial Spanish flag was re-hoisted. This second spanish rule in Santo Domingo was between 18-3-1861 and 11-7-1865.
Jaume Ollé, 02 Nov 1997

See also: Santo Domingo Maritime Province 1863-1865 (Spain)