The national flag of the Netherlands (Dutch: de Nederlandse vlag) is a horizontal tricolour of red, white, and blue.

To end the confusion, the colours red, white and blue and its official status as the national flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands were reaffirmed by royal decree on 19 February 1937.

[17] The flag of the Netherlands is similar to that of Luxembourg, but it has a smaller width and it uses slightly darker shades of red and blue.

In 1568 provinces of the Low Countries rose in revolt against King Philip II of Spain, and Prince William of Orange (1533–1584) placed himself at the head of the rebels.

In Ghent in 1577, William was welcomed with a number of theatrical allegories represented by a young girl wearing orange, blue and white.

[23] The first explicit reference to a naval flag in these colours is found in the ordonnances of the Admiralty of Zeeland, dated 1587, i.e. shortly after William's death.

[24] That was based on the fact that in 1572 the Watergeuzen (Gueux de mer, "Sea Beggars"), the pro-Dutch privateers, captured Den Briel in name of William, Prince of Orange.

[25] It appears that prior to 1664, the red-white-blue tricolour was commonly known as the "Flag of Holland" (Hollandsche Vlag); named after one of the revolting provinces.

[25] In 1796 the red division of the flag was embellished with the figure of a Netherlands maiden, with a lion at her feet, in the upper left corner.

Louis Bonaparte, made king of Holland by his brother the Emperor Napoleon, wished to pursue a purely Dutch policy and to respect national sentiments as much as possible.

Some people were convinced that orange, white, and blue were the true colours of the Dutch flag, particularly members of the National Socialist Movement in the Netherlands.

[13] To end the discussion, a royal decree established the colours of the Dutch flag as: 'The colours of the flag of the Kingdom of the Netherlands are red, white and blue' (Dutch: De kleuren van de vlag van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden zijn rood, wit en blauw).

[31][32] It was only on 16 August 1949 that the exact colour parameters were defined by the Ministry of the Navy[14] as bright vermilion (red), white and cobalt blue.

The pennant is usually added on King's Day (Dutch: Koningsdag, 27 April) or other festive occasions related to the Royal Family.

One represents "the flow of tourists to sun-drenched Aruba, enriching the island as well as vacationers", the other "industry, all the minerals (gold and phosphates in the past, petroleum in the early 20th century)".

The star also represents the island itself: a land of often red soil bordered by white beaches in a blue sea.

The red also represents blood shed by Arubans during war, past Indian inhabitants, patriotic love, and Brazil wood.

The flag of Curaçao is a navy blue field with a horizontal hot yellow stripe slightly below the midline and two white, five-pointed stars in the canton.

The pre-independence flag of Suriname consisted of five coloured stars (from top left clockwise: white, black, brown, yellow, and red) connected by an ellipse.

The coloured stars represent the major ethnic groups that comprise the Surinamese population: the original Amerindians, the colonising Europeans, the Africans brought in as slaves to work in plantations and the Indians, Javanese and Chinese who came as indentured workers to replace the Africans who escaped slavery and settled in the hinterland.

[33] The Morning Star flag (Indonesian: Bintang Kejora) represented the Netherlands New Guinea from 1 December 1961 until 1 October 1962 when the territory came under administration of the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA).

The flag is commonly used by the West Papuan population including OPM (Organisasi Papua Merdeka; Free Papua Movement) supporters to rally self-determination human rights support and is popularly flown on 1 December each year in defiance of Indonesian domestic laws.

The flag consists of a red vertical band along the hoist side, with a white five-pointed star in the centre.