Better Flags for Iberia
Just a simple mod giving new flags to Iberia and changing a couple of the Spanish ones.
I find that there are several issues with the flag that is currently used in Vanilla. Firstly, it only makes sense for it to be used as the flag for a liberal/constitutional monarchy, since thats exactly what the colors represent, the Kingdom of Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain, whose flag would officially become the "rojigualda" (red and yellow) only in 1843. This flag gained popular support as a way to represent the Spanish nation during the Peninsular War, with its use being adopted by the Cortes de Cádiz, which produced the first ever Spanish constitution. Because of this I don’t think it is optimal to use these colors for an absolutist Iberia, since I would consider the Cross of Burgundy (white and red) a much better flag to represent a Spanish absolute monarchy. Secondly, it’s hard to adapt the flag’s pattern for other forms of government without having it look dreadful. So if we keep this flag then we would have to use completely different patterns and colors for the other flags, making them quite uncohesive. And finally, even though this flag is in fact a historical proposal for a united Iberia, it looks quite ugly.
Because all of this I decided it was best to completely abandon this design in favor of completely new ones.
The flag I’ve chosen use as the thematic core for Iberian flags is the ‘Bandera de los galeones’ (red, white and yellow horizontal stripes), documented to have been used by the ‘Armada Invencible’ during the failed invasion of England. There are multiple pros for using this flag: it’s simple, it’s easily distinguishable from other European flags, it looks nice, it was used at a time when Portugal, Castile and Aragon were in a dynastic union, it isn’t as clearly tied to a specific form of government and it is a somewhat popular proposal for an Iberian flag nowadays.
The flags included with this mod are:
-Iberia:
- Constitutional Monarchy: ‘Bandera de los Galeones’ with an appropiate CoA representing the various kingdoms of Iberia
- Absolute Monarchy: A merge between the Cross of Burgundy and a modified version of the Shield of King Alfonso I (I tried using the original pattern first, but it didn’t look too good do to the size of the flag in the UI)
- Theocracy: An interpretation of the symbol of a reunified Order of Calatrava and Order of Aviz on a black background. The yellow band is meant to tie the flag closer with the others as well as representing loyalty to the Pope
- Dictatorship/Oligarchy: Just the ‘Bandera de los Galeones’, meant to be a bit generic.
- Republic: The same colors as in the ‘Bandera de los Galeones’, but arranged in a vertical pattern with a CoA at the center. It’s meant to be reminiscent of other Latin republics (France, Italy, Romania, Mexico)
- Communist state: The same standard style used in the game for communist flags, but with the colors of the ‘Bandera de los Galeones’
- Anarchy: The pattern of the flag used by the FAI with its symbol at the center.
-Spain:
- Communist state: I’ve only changed the emblem to one that resembles the historical one a bit more, otherwise it’s the same flag as the one in vanilla.
- Anarchy: The pattern of the flag used by the CNT with one of its symbols (Hercules fighting against the Nemean lion) at the center.
-Portugal:
- Absolute monarchy without Brazil: A white background with the same coat of arms as in the constitutional monarchy flag
- Absolute monarchy with Brazil: The same flag that is used for an absolute monarchy in the base game.
- Constitutional monarchy with Brazil: The white and blue pattern used by the default constitutional monarchy flag but with the same coat of arms used for the absolute monarchy in the base game.
-United Netherlands:
- Base flag: This flag (added with the 1.5.3 Open Beta) uses exactly the same color scheme as the Iberian flag used in this mod. I think it is supposed to resemble the flag used by the Austrian Netherlands, which doesn’t make much sense to me, and it can lead to confusion with the flags included in this mod, so I’ve changed it to a variant of the Prinsenvlag. If you want to use a different mod that changes the flag of the United Netherlands, simply place it below this mod in your playset and it will have priority over this one.
Should be compatible with any mod that doesn’t change the Iberian or Spanish flags.
