Many flags in this world look quite similar to others. However, few flags look practically identical: it’s almost impossible to tell the flags of Romania and Chad apart. Why do they look almost exactly the same? Is it intentional, or merely a coincidence? How did this happen, and why? Find out what you need to know about the uncanny similarity of these flags!
The Use of the Same Colors is Coincidental
If you were expecting some mind-boggling conspiracy, sorry! The truth is, the uncanny resemblance between the flags of Chad and Romania is almost entirely a coincidence. Let’s start with Chad and a brief history lesson. Chad was a French colony in Africa until 1960. Obviously, this instilled many of its citizens with a strong French identity.
But when it gained independence in 1960, Chad wanted to create a more hybrid identity for itself that harkened to its origins as a French colony, but also its African heritage. To do this, Chad decided to create a flag that borrowed colors from both the French flag, which was blue, white and red, and the Pan-African colors, which were green, yellow, and red.
So, the flag of Chad kept the blue from France, took the yellow from Pan-African colors, and kept the red that was present in both flags. The Romanian colors were much older than Chad (being adopted in the 1830s), but the selection of these colors by Chad had nothing to do with Romania at all.
The Flags Were Different At One Time
While the colors of these two flags have always been practically identical (the shade of blue is very slightly different between the two), they did actually have a distinctive difference at one time, primarily on the part of Romania’s flag.
You see, when Romania first adopted its flag, it possessed a Socialist coat of arms in the center of the middle yellow stripe. This coat of arms was pretty much the only defining feature of the Romanian flag that separated it from the flag of Chad. The two flags are even the exact same proportions, so this was truly it!
However, when Romania underwent a revolution in 1989, they chose to remove this distinctive coat of arms from their flag and simply keep the same colors they had always possessed. Once this coat of arms was gone, the flags of Romania and Chad were nearly identical.
Of course, this was all just a coincidence. Obviously, Romania, far removed from Chad geographically and politically, had no intent to have a nearly identical flag to theirs. The fact of the matter is, there are only so many colors to go around, and people tend to find similar meanings in similar colors.
That being the case, many countries end up possessing flags with very similar color schemes to other nations, with shades sometimes being the only difference. Still, the flags of Chad and Romania remain some of the most uncannily similar in the world to this day!
