Americas

Flag of Chile

Chile is a long, narrow country stretching approximately 4,300 kilometres along South America's western coast, from the world's driest non-polar desert in the north to Patagonian glaciers and Cape Horn in the south. The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is so dry that in some areas no rainfall has ever been recorded. Easter Island (Rapa Nui), famous for its mysterious moai statues carved by the Rapa Nui people, is a Chilean Pacific territory.

CapitalSantiago
RegionAmericas
Current flag since1818
Main coloursRed, White, Blue
Populationabout 19 million
Areaabout 756,000 km²
Flags in history3

Population and area are rounded.

What the flag of Chile means

Chile's flag, La Estrella Solitaria, was adopted in 1817 during the war of independence. White stands for the snow of the Andes, blue for the sky, and red for the blood shed for independence. The star is a guide to progress and honour.

How to recognise it

Horizontal white-over-red with a blue canton containing a white star in the upper left.

Did you know?

Chile is the longest north-south country in the world at 4,300 km.

Easily confused with

Chile's flag is often mixed up with these. Learn to tell them apart:

Cuba

Liberia

Flag history of Chile

Every flag that has flown over Chile, from today back through time.

1818–present

Chilean Flag (La Estrella Solitaria)

Chile's flag — the "Lone Star" — was finalised on October 18, 1817, shortly before independence was formally declared. The white star represents a guide to progress and honour; red and blue are said to represent the blood of patriots and the sky and ocean. Superficially similar to the Texas flag (adopted 1839), the Chilean flag actually came first. The proportions were refined in 1854 but the design has been unchanged for over 200 years.

1812–1817

La Patria Vieja (Old Fatherland)

During the first period of Chilean self-government (1810–1814, before the Spanish reconquest), Chile's early revolutionary flags used horizontal blue-white-yellow stripes — very different from today's design. After the Reconquista restored Spanish rule, patriots went into exile in Argentina, trained with San Martín's Army of the Andes, and returned in 1817 to liberate Chile and adopt an entirely new flag.

1542–1810

Captaincy General of Chile (Spanish)

For nearly three centuries Chile was a Spanish colony — the Captaincy General of Chile, a frontier territory fighting a long war with the unconquered Mapuche in the south — flying the Cross of Burgundy of the Spanish Empire, until the independence movement began in 1810.

Related historical states

Empires, kingdoms and republics that once covered part of Chile.

1860–1862

Kingdom of Araucanía and Patagonia

A blue-white-green tricolor for the unrecognized kingdom that French adventurer Orélie-Antoine de Tounens proclaimed over Mapuche territory in southern Chile.

1817–1818

Chile (Patria Vieja transition)

A transitional blue-white-red tricolour flown between the Patria Vieja and the definitive 1818 flag, during the years San Martín's army crossed the Andes to liberate Chile.