Flag of Haiti

The flag of Haiti was adopted on February 25, 1986. The flag has two horizontal bands of equal height; the top stripe is blue and the bottom is red. In the center there is a white rectangle with the Coat of Arms of Haiti which consists of a palm tree with several flags at its sides. There are two cannons on either side of the palm tree. The civil flag and the ensign (the one used by commercial ships) do not have a coat of arms.
The Haitian flag was created by the revolutionary Jean-Jacques Dessalines in 1803 from the French flag (the "Tricolore"); he eliminated the white stripe and left only the blue and red stripes in the new flag.
From May 25 1964 to February 25 1986, during the dictatorship of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier, the country had a different flag, in red and black, and divided vertically, not horizontally.