page_title: Estelada
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Estelada / History
caption_attribution_description: Català: Casa Amatller (Barcelona) This is a photo of a monument indexed in the Catalan heritage register of Béns Culturals d'Interès Nacional and the Spanish heritage register of Bienes de Interés Cultural under the reference RI-51-0004199. Object location41°&#160;23′&#160;29.68″&#160;N, 2°&#160;09′&#160;54.22″&#160;E&#160;View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap - Google Earth
context_page_description: The Estelada is an unofficial flag typically flown by Catalan independence supporters to express their support for either an independent Catalonia or independent Països Catalans. The use of this flag as a protest symbol within Catalan nationalism has become more notable since the 1970s' Spanish transition to democracy.
  The design of the Estelada comprises the red-and-yellow bars of the Senyera, with the addition of a five-pointed star in a triangle at the hoist. It wasn't adopted as the national flag of the proclaimed Catalan Republic, the legitimacy of which was disputed; instead the Senyera flag was used.
context_section_description: The 3rd Article of the provisional Constitution of the Catalan Republic, written and approved in 1928 in Cuba by the Assemblea Constituent (Constituent Assembly) of Catalan separatism, specifically provided that the official flag of the Catalan Republic should consist of four red bars on a yellow field, superimposed with a white five-pointed star in a blue triangle.
  The star in the flag comes from the early days of nationalism, the lone star symbolising national freedom and independence. Cuba's fight for its independence was watched closely by the Catalanists of the nineteenth century and in 1906, when the Cuban War of Independence ended, the Centre Catalanista de Santiago de Cuba (Catalanist Centre of Santiago de Cuba) was created. An embryonic Catalan estelada flag could already be seen: in the middle of a senyera there was a white star with five points.
  The first star with a clear nationalist intent known in Catalonia is from before 1904, associated with the Unió Catalanista (Catalanist Union). It is a stamp commemorating the acquisition of the Pi de les Tres Branques (Three-Branched Pine) by the Catalanist Union.
  Later, in 1906, a star appeared in the nameplate of the magazine Fora Grillons! (Breaking Chains!), published in Santiago de Cuba by Catalan exiles - a publication that had already clearly proclaimed the independence of Catalonia.
  During the late 1910s, once World War I was over, Europe saw a wave of new nation-states being created, with the assistance of President Woodrow Wilson.
  The politics of the League of Nations (and later the United Nations) allowed many nations to seize the opportunity of independence, and Czechoslovakia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Iceland did so in 1918; other nations like Armenia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Belarus and Georgia, were declared independent, but were then immediately annexed by the Soviet Union. The aspirations for independence of Catalonia (as those of western Armenians and the Kurds) were ignored, contradicting the 1918 "fourteen points" of US President Wilson's and the Allies's principle of "peoples' right to self-determination" a.k.a. "national self-determination." (reiterated in the 1941 Atlantic Charter and in 1945 by the Article 1 (2) - "Equal rights and self-determination of peoples" of the United Nations charter).
  From the nations that hoped for independence, pressure groups began to mobilize internationally. In the Catalan case, the Comitè Pro-Catalunya (Pro-Catalonia Committee) was one of the most active. It was in this context that a need was perceived to have a flag as a symbol of Catalan aspiration; and, of course, a star appeared on it. Since then the estelada flag began to be spoken of. It was probably designed by Vicenç Albert Ballester, with the blue triangle signifying the blue sky of humanity, and the white star symbolizing freedom.
  
  The first photograph in which the flag appeared was in a publication dated the bulletin L’intransigent (The Intransigent) in 1918. It shows a group of young Americans and Catalan separatists holding both flags.
   Also in 1918, there was a comic strip in circulation—a stamp without postal value—dedicated to the future League of Nations, where there was also an estelada.
  There are several kinds of estelada. One is in the last number of La Tralla ("The Whip", a radical separatist magazine from the 1920s), before the coup d'état by Miguel Primo de Rivera. The other is in a document published by the Comitè Pro-Catalunya written in Catalan and Arabic, to greet and encourage one of the Moroccan leaders who revolted against Spain.
  In Cuba, it appeared for first time in the nameplate of the magazine La Nova Catalunya (1920), (The New Catalonia). The estelada flag went on to appear in other Catalan separatist publications.
  An estelada was owned by Francesc Macià during the failed invasion of Prats de Molló in 1926; it appeared between the imprisonment of the Catalan volunteers and their transfer to Paris to be put on trial. There are photographs of the volunteers with the estelada in several other places.
  In 1928, with the
caption: The classical flag, without the star, is called the senyera, seen here among Estelada flags
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