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The first Slovak flag was white-red bicolor and was waved on 23rd April 1848 in Brezová during a theatre performance. A petition signed on 10th May 1848 in Liptovský Sv. Mikula demanded not only constitutional or educational rights for Slovaks but also permission for using red and white Slovak flags. This was rejected by the Hungarians as well as the other demands. In August 1848 the blue color was added and in 18th September 1848 in Velká nad Veličkou on the Hungarian-Moravian border the Slovak revolutionaries hoisted various Slovak and Slav flags combining red, white and blue in many variations. Some of them depicted the original Hungarian coat of arms, only the green color of the three hills was replaced by blue. The present order of the three stripes of Slovak flag was established after 1868.
These three colors were often used by the Slovak associations in the United States. They were also used on the Czechoslovak flag adopted on 30th March 1920, where the blue triangle at the hoist represented Slovakia. After the puppet Slovak Republic was established, the law of 23rd June 1939 enacted the white-blue-red tricolor as the state flag. The same flag was enacted after the Velvet Revolution on 1st March 1990 by the Slovak National Council. The constitution of September 1992 added the coat of arms because the flag could be mistaken for the one of Russia.
The present-day state flag of the Slovak Republic is described in article 9, paragraph 2 of the Slovak Constitution, which was enacted on 1st September 1992. It was hoisted for the first time on 3rd September 1992 at 20:22 CET in front of the Bratislava Castle. But its exact form was determined by law of 18th February 1993, enacted by the National Council of the Slovak Republic. According to this law, height of the shield with Slovak state coat of arms is equal to half of width of the flag. The shield is separated from the blue and red stripes by the white stripe. Its width is equal to the one hundredth of the flag's length.
Jan Kravcik
6 June 2000
Source:
Ales Brozek-Lexikon vlajek a znaku
sveta, Kartografie Praha 1998
  
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