Cuba: flag, capital and map

Designed in 1849 in New York by General Narciso López and the poet Miguel Teurbe Tolón, amid the struggle for independence from Spain, Cuba’s flag was only officially adopted in 1902.

The three blue stripes are said to recall the island’s three departments at the time, the white its purity of cause; the red triangle, of Masonic inspiration, stands for equality, and the white star, the “Estrella Solitaria”, symbolises the independence still to come.