From Haiti to Gran Colombia: The Remarkable History Connecting the Flags of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador

From Haiti to Gran Colombia: The Remarkable History Connecting the Flags of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador

At first glance, the national flags of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador immediately appear related. Each features the same three fundamental colors—yellow, blue and red—arranged horizontally.

That similarity is not a coincidence.

Behind these three flags lies a shared history involving revolution, the struggle against Spanish colonial rule, Francisco de Miranda, Simón Bolívar, the former Republic of Colombia—commonly called Gran Colombia—and, remarkably, Haiti.

Francisco de Miranda and the Birth of the Tricolor

The story begins with Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda, one of the earliest major advocates for the independence of Spanish America.

In 1806, Miranda organized an expedition intended to challenge Spanish rule in Venezuela. A contemporary account published only a few years later, The History of Don Francisco de Miranda’s Attempt to Effect a Revolution in South America, documents the expedition and refers to the display of the “Columbian colours.” The work is preserved by the Library of Congress. (The Library of Congress⁠)

Miranda’s expedition departed from New York and traveled through the Caribbean before attempting to establish a revolutionary movement in Venezuela. The Library of Congress also preserves historical material identifying the 1806 expedition as an important precursor to the Venezuelan independence movement. (Library of Congress Tile⁠)

It is during this expedition that Haiti enters the story.

Jacmel, Haiti, and the Revolutionary Flag

Miranda’s expedition stopped at Jacmel, Haiti, in 1806.

The yellow, blue and red tricolor associated with Miranda was raised during this period before his expedition continued toward Venezuela. This makes Haiti—specifically Jacmel—an important location in the early history of the flag tradition that would eventually be inherited by several South American republics.

This distinction is important: Haiti did not design the Venezuelan, Colombian or Ecuadorian flags. Francisco de Miranda is associated with the creation of the tricolor.

However, the tricolor’s early revolutionary history is directly connected to Haitian territory.

The Library of Congress preserves James Biggs’s contemporary account of Miranda’s expedition, originally published in 1808. Its contents specifically include the episode in which the “Columbian colours” were displayed, providing unusually early documentary evidence concerning Miranda’s revolutionary symbols. (The Library of Congress⁠)

Haiti’s Connection Did Not End With Miranda

Approximately a decade later, Haiti would again become connected to the struggle for South American independence—this time through Simón Bolívar.

After suffering major setbacks in his campaigns against Spain, Bolívar sought assistance in Haiti.

Haiti had accomplished something extraordinary only years earlier. Following the Haitian Revolution, Haiti declared its independence in 1804, establishing an independent state created through a successful revolution against slavery and colonial rule.

Under Haitian President Alexandre Pétion, Bolívar received assistance that helped him reorganize his campaign.

Haitian support included military supplies and other resources for the independence expedition. Pétion’s relationship with Bolívar also became connected to the question of slavery: Haitian support was accompanied by pressure for the liberation of enslaved people in territories freed from Spanish control.

Thus Haiti appears at two different moments in this history:

1806 — Francisco de Miranda and the tricolor at Jacmel.

1815–1816 — Alexandre Pétion and Haiti’s assistance to Simón Bolívar.

These events should not be confused, but together they demonstrate Haiti’s often overlooked connection to the wider independence movements of Latin America.

From Miranda’s Flag to Venezuela

Miranda’s revolutionary movement in 1806 did not immediately liberate Venezuela.

His expedition encountered serious resistance, and the effort ultimately failed. Historical material preserved by the Library of Congress records Miranda’s 1806 landing at Coro and the difficulties his expedition encountered. (Library of Congress Tile⁠)

But Miranda’s ideas survived.

When Venezuela’s independence movement accelerated several years later, Miranda returned to Venezuela. Simón Bolívar was among those who encouraged his return. (Library of Congress Tile⁠)

The yellow-blue-red tricolor became associated with the emerging Venezuelan republic and the broader independence movement.

That is where the story begins expanding beyond Venezuela.

The Creation of Gran Colombia

The independence campaigns eventually produced a much larger political project associated with Bolívar: the Republic of Colombia, historically referred to as Gran Colombia to distinguish it from the modern Republic of Colombia.

Gran Colombia incorporated territories corresponding largely to today’s:

🇨🇴 Colombia

🇻🇪 Venezuela

🇪🇨 Ecuador

🇵🇦 Panama

For a period, these territories were not simply neighboring countries. They belonged to the same republic.

The yellow-blue-red revolutionary tradition associated with Miranda became part of the symbolism of this new political order.

That shared political history explains one of the most recognizable similarities among national flags anywhere in the world today.

Gran Colombia Breaks Apart

Gran Colombia did not survive permanently.

Political disagreements, regional interests and disputes concerning the organization of the republic contributed to its fragmentation around 1830–1831.

Venezuela separated.

Ecuador separated.

The remaining territory eventually evolved politically into what became modern Colombia and Panama, with Panama later separating from Colombia in 1903.

Yet one powerful piece of the earlier union survived:

the yellow, blue and red tricolor.

The successor republics developed their own national symbols, but Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador preserved recognizable descendants of this shared flag tradition.

Why the Three Flags Look Different Today

The relationship remains immediately visible.

🇨🇴 Colombia

Colombia uses yellow, blue and red without a coat of arms on the standard national flag. The yellow band occupies the upper half of the flag, while blue and red each occupy one quarter.

🇪🇨 Ecuador

Ecuador retains a similar yellow-blue-red arrangement, but its national flag places the Ecuadorian coat of arms in the center.

🇻🇪 Venezuela

Venezuela uses three equal horizontal bands of yellow, blue and red, with eight white stars arranged across the blue band.

The countries therefore developed separate national identities while preserving unmistakable traces of their common revolutionary and political ancestry.

Where Does Haiti Fit Into This History?

Haiti’s role should be understood carefully.

It would be historically misleading to claim that Haiti created the flags of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador.

But it would also leave out an extraordinary chapter of history to ignore Haiti entirely.

The more accurate historical chain is:

Haiti — Jacmel, 1806

↓

Francisco de Miranda and his revolutionary tricolor

↓

Venezuelan independence movement

↓

Haiti again — Pétion’s assistance to Bolívar, 1815–1816

↓

Bolívar’s renewed liberation campaigns

↓

Gran Colombia

↓

Venezuela • Colombia • Ecuador

↓

Three modern national flags sharing the yellow-blue-red tradition

Haiti therefore occupies a fascinating position in this history.

It was a location associated with the early revolutionary use of Miranda’s tricolor, and approximately a decade later it became an important source of assistance for Bolívar’s independence campaign.

An Overlooked Caribbean–South American Connection

Today, someone looking at the flags of Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador may simply assume that the countries chose similar colors.

The history is much deeper.

Those colors carry memories of a period when revolutionaries imagined a liberated Spanish America, when Miranda attempted to transform that idea into a political reality, and when Bolívar later pursued a continental independence project.

And Haiti appears repeatedly within that story.

The Caribbean nation that had itself emerged from revolution became connected first with Miranda’s expedition and later with Bolívar’s struggle.

The three modern flags therefore represent more than three individual countries. Their similarities preserve evidence of a shared revolutionary past—one stretching across Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and the Caribbean, with an important chapter written in Haiti.

Historical Source

The Library of Congress preserves an early account of Miranda’s 1806 expedition: James Biggs, The History of Don Francisco de Miranda’s Attempt to Effect a Revolution in South America: In a Series of Letters, published in Boston in 1808. The collection identifies the work specifically with “Venezuela—History—Miranda’s Expedition, 1806” and preserves references to the expedition’s “Columbian colours.” (The Library of Congress⁠)

View the original 1808 historical source at the Library of Congress⁠

I deliberately emphasized the Haitian connection while preserving the distinction between what Haiti contributed and what Miranda himself created.