Tricolour (flag) orange-white-blue design of the Prince's Flag ("Prinsenvlag", predecessor of the flags of the Netherlands and Luxembourg), used from 1579 by William I of Orange-Nassau in the Eighty Years' War, establishing the independence of the Dutch Republic from the Spanish Empire. Though not the first tricolour flag, one of the most famous, known as "Le Tricolore", is the blue, white and red (whence also called "Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge") flag of France adopted in the French Revolution. With the formation of French client republics after 1795, the revolutionary tricolour was exported and adopted more widely in Europe, by the Republic of Alba 1796
Tricolour (flag) of Gabon, flag of Guinea, flag of Mali, and flag of Nigeria. The green-white-red tricolour remained a symbol of republicanism throughout the 19th century and was adopted as national flag by a number of states following the Revolutions of 1848. It was also adopted by the Kingdom of Sardinia (inherited by the Kingdom of Italy 1861). The flag of Germany (black-red-gold) originated as the flag of the revolutionary, anti-monarchist Freikorps of the 1830s and was later adopted by the republicanist bourgeoisie, at the time known as "Dreifarb", a German calque of "Tricolore". This flag was a symbol of opposition against