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Location:
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State of Minnesota, United States of America
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Status:
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Admission to Statehood: May 11, 1858
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Capital City:
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Saint Paul
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Main Cities:
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Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Duluth, Rochester, Bloomington, Brooklyn Park
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Population:
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4,919,479; 21st, 12/00
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Area:
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86,943 sq.mi, 12th largest
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Currency:
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1 US dollar = 100 cents
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Languages:
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English, Spanish, and over 30 others
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Religions:
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Protestant, Roman Catholic, Judaism
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The flag of Minnesota: The flag of Minnesota consists of the state seal on a royal blue background with gold fringe. The seal is surrounded by a wreath of the state flower, the showy lady slipper. Three dates are woven into a wreath of the state flower: 1858, the statehood year; 1819, the year Fort Snelling was established; and 1893, the year the original flag was adopted. Nineteen stars ring the wreath, symbolizing the fact that Minnesota was the 19th state to enter the Union after the original 13. The largest star represents the North Star and Minnesota. The current flag was adopted in 1957 and the state seal in the flag was modified in 1983.
The first flag of the state of Minnesota was adopted in 1893. That flag was created by Mrs. Amelia Hyde Center of Minneapolis. That flag was white on front and light blue on the back. In the center was the state seal wreathed with white moccasin flowers, on a blue ground. A red ribbon in the seal bore a motto. The years 1819 (settlement of Minnesota), 1858 (statehood) and 1893 (adoption of the first state flag) appeared in gold around the state seal. Minnesota was written under the state seal in gold and 19 gold stars arranged in clusters to form the points a star also surrendered the state seal 19 stars represented the fact that Minnesota was the 19th state added after the original 13 states. This flag was costly to produce, and few were made or used. This led to a redesign of the flag in 1957.
New Flag Proposals: Since 1989, several efforts have been made to institute a better Minnesota flag, most notably the North Star Flag campaign, which has waxed and waned in strength. The North American Vexillological Association (NAVA), in its 2001 survey] of United States and Canadian state, provincial, and territorial flags rated the current Minnesota flag 67th out of 72 flags evaluated.
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The flag is a piece of cloth, often flown from a pole or mast, generally used for signalling or identification. The design of a flag displayed in another form is also referred to as a flag. The first flags were used to assist military coordination on battlefields, and flags have evolved into a general tool for rudimentary signalling and identification, especially in environments where communication is similarly challenging (such as the maritime environment where semaphore is used).
National flags are potent patriotic symbols with varied wide-ranging interpretations, often including strong military associations due to their original and ongoing military uses. Flags are used in messaging or advertising, or for decorative purposes, though at this less formal end the distinction between a flag and a simple cloth banner is blurred. The study of flags is known as vexillology, from the Latin vexillum meaning flag or banner.
Although flag-like symbols have been used by ancient cultures for thousands of years, the origin of flags in the modern sense is a matter of dispute. Some believe flags originated in China, while others hold that the Roman Empire's vexillum was the first true flag. Originally, the standards of the Roman legions were not flags, but symbols like the eagle of Augustus Caesar's Xth legion; this eagle would be placed on a staff for the standard-bearer to hold up during battle. But a military unit from Scythia had for a standard a dragon with a flexible tail which would move in the wind; the legions copied this; eventually all the legions had flexible standards our modern-day flag.
During the Middle Ages, flags were used mainly during battles to identify individual leaders: in Europe the knights, in Japan the samurai, and in China the generals under the imperial army.
From the time of Christopher Columbus onwards, it has been customary (and later a legal requirement) for ships to carry flags designating their nationality; these flags eventually evolved into the national flags and maritime flags of today. Flags also became the preferred means of communications at sea, resulting in various systems of flag signals; see International maritime signal flags.
Beginning in the 17th century, European knights were replaced by centralized armies, and flags became the means to identify not just nationalities but also individual military units. Flags became much more elaborate, and were seen as objects to be captured or defended. Eventually these flags posed too much danger to those carrying them, and by World War I these were withdrawn from the battlefields, and have since been used only at ceremonial occasions.
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