When Wikipedia has the Flag Wrong

Wikipedia is often the first place people check to find common information, such as the flag of a country. While usually accurate, Wikipedia has on occasion gotten national flags completely incorrect, leading to these flags propagating across the internet and real life.

Timestamps
- 00:00 - Introduction
- 00:51 - Austria-Hungary
- 08:56 - Confederation of the Rhine
- 10:14 - Vatican City

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Sources:
Austria-Hungary section
(and its history and talk pages)

Confederation of the Rhine section
(and its history and talk pages)

Vatican City section
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#history #flags #wikipedia

[petartoshkov]

It's a shame the Austro-Hungarian government cannot take a stance on this issue.

[christianschlogl]

The Austro-Hungarian wiki page seems to be as united as the empire itself

[FW-A-]

The problem with Wikipedia isn't that it's necessarily unreliable, it's that when there is any false information, it spreads around as fact pretty quickly

[professionalgoob]

Man, learning about Wikipedia editing wars is honestly hilarious. Those editors take their roles really seriously, it’s also fun to learn about story’s like this. Really good video

[yaroslavsemenov]

Ahh yes, the War for the Austro-Hungarian flag, the most terrifying conflict of the 21st century, fought on the battlefields of Wikipedia

[viccne]

As a Hungarian, I can confirm that this is as insane as our time with the austrian empire.

[socialistrepublicofvietnam]

This happened to literally every Vietnamese dynasty, where they got fictional flags that got plastered on every page
If I recall correctly, one of those fictional flags is literally flying over the tomb of the first emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty

[yorgunsamuray]

My grandpa had this 1970 edition of Encyclopedia Britannica. When I was young I was interested in flags (still am), so that I would check its flag pages often. It also had this civil ensign for Austria-Hungary flag. I grew up thinking like that. The perception may be way older than Wikipedia.

[clutrike]

"He who controls Wikipedia, controls the world"

[jconfigs]

Wow. Millions of people have always known that as the Austro-Hungarian flag, all video games use that flag, virtually any content you can find about Austria Hungary on the internet uses that flag, I have never heard about this before. It's incredible how much a wikipedia page can deceive so many people, thank you for making this video, looking forward to the next.

[davidbaptist]

This reminds me of how the battle flag of the Confederate States of America has become the most prominent flag of that nation in popular culture, despite it never being the official flag.

[EoCx]

5:42
"You expose yourself as a Wikipedia-brain as you repeat the FALLACY..."
unfathomably based energy

[alexcool]

I’ve actually been to the Vatican and bought a small flag, which even they got wrong! Great video also keep up the work.

[JimmyaKaTheK]

Thank you so much for this video. For years the mystery of the Austro Hungarian flag has absolutely consumed me. I have wasted countless hours of my life searching for photographs of a real Austro Hungarian navel ensign flag dated between 1867 and 1918 to no avail. I've always known that the Austro Hungarian empire did not have an official state flag but the mystery of why we use the navel ensign in popular culture has always confused me. This video has given me context to how the navel ensign came into public conciousness yet I still cannot find an actual image of a real flag used during the 19th and 20th centuries.

[tenacious]

Wikipedia can be a nightmare to deal with because there are a lot of highly opinionated editors who are friends off-site with moderators and admins.

[sirtiner]

I like the fact that in Battlefield 1 the team actually did their research and used the Habsburg monarchy flag for that faction.

[dylanlovesqueentoomuch]

I've been lied to about Austria-Hungary, I even bought the civil flag. But, I now know the truth. Thank you

[attilarischt]

I was 100% aware of austria hungary not having an actual common flag/used mostly the black and red, yet I never actually internalised that the most common flag portrayal is actually wrong for some reason. I just went with the flow

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Fun fact, the flag of the Confederation of the Rhine stayed on Wikipedia for longer than the Confederate States of America existed! The Confederation of the Rhine error always annoys me it was made up by someone on the internet in 2004 and now Napoleonic themed mods and games have it. And the thing is, that may not be the Confederation's flag, but it IS the flag of Ecuador's Galápagos Province as well as the nation of Sierra Leone (though Sierra Leone has a lighter shade of green and blue)! For the Galápagos, the green represents the islands' abundance of vegetation, white represents the people's purity thanks to their isolation, and the blue represents the sky and the Pacific Ocean and how the islands are blessed with so much marine life.

For Sierra Leone, green represents their natural resources, white represents unity and justice, and blue represents the natural harbor of Freetown, the country's capital! This flag was adopted in 1961 when they got their independence, but Elizabeth II was still their monarch until 1971 when a republican system was introduced. So during this time, Elizabeth had her own personal flag for Sierra Leone, with the light blue being turned into waves and the light green being turned into hills with a giant yellow lion in the middle as if it's running through said hills.

[kirkkerman]

Man this video is refreshing, I remember getting into vexillology and heraldry around 2015 and slowly coming to the intensely frustrating realization that a lot of flags and arms that people were making fun of were just bad Wikipedia renderings rather than intrinsically bad designs.