Adoption of the Cisalpine Republic Flag
- When
- 1797–1798
- Where
- Reggio Emilia (not among allowed places); Northern Italy (site not specified); Cisalpine Republic (site not specified)
- Episodes
- 3
The supplied passages do not document the Cisalpine Republic adopting the green-white-red tricolour in Milan on 7 January 1797. That date and location belong to the Cispadane Republic's Fourteenth Parliament in Reggio Emilia, while the Cisalpine Republic was created later in June 1797 and adopted its tricolour banner in 1798.
Episodes
- Cispadane Parliament adopts the tricolour, 7 January 1797
The Fourteenth Parliament of the Cispadane Republic decreed the green, white and red flag in Reggio Emilia, the first such national flag of a sovereign Italian state.
- Napoleon decrees the Cisalpine Republic, June 1797
Napoleon decreed the birth of the Cisalpine Republic on 12 Messidor (29 June) 1797, creating a Directory and appointing its ministers.
- Cisalpine Republic adopts its tricolour banner, 1798
After the merger of the Cispadane and Transpadane Republics, the Cisalpine Republic adopted a vertical square tricolour without badge in 1798.
Background and detail
Background. After the Battle of Lodi in May 1796, Napoleon organized two states in northern Italy: the Cispadane Republic south of the Po and the Transpadane Republic to the north. The green, white and red colours had already appeared on cockades in Genoa in 1789 and Milan in 1796, and on the Lombard Legion's military banner adopted in Milan on 11 October 1796.
The Cispadane Adoption of 7 January 1797. On 7 January 1797 the Fourteenth Parliament of the Cispadane Republic, on the proposal of deputy Giuseppe Compagnoni, decreed a standard or flag of three colours, green, white and red. This was the first red, white and green national flag of a sovereign Italian state, adopted in Reggio Emilia, not by the Cisalpine Republic.
Cisalpine Creation and Later Flag Decisions. The Cisalpine Republic was decreed into existence by Napoleon on 12 Messidor (29 June) 1797, after the Cispadane flag adoption. The Cispadane and Transpadane Republics merged into it, and it adopted a vertical square tricolour without badge in 1798; on 11 May 1798 its Grand Council chose a tricolour with the colours arranged vertically.
People involved
- Giuseppe Compagnoni · Cispadane deputy who proposed the tricolour flag decree
- Napoleon Bonaparte · French general who organized the Cispadane and Transpadane Republics and decreed the Cisalpine Republic
Sources
- Flag of Italy Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-10
- Cisalpine Republic Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-20
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.