Union Jack Union Jack. The Basque Country's flag, the Ikurriña, is also loosely based on the Union Jack, reflecting the significant commercial ties between Bilbao and Britain at the time the Ikurriña was designed in 1894. The Miskito people sometimes use a similar flag that also incorporates the Union Jack in its canton, due to long periods of contact in the Mosquito Coast. The Union Jack was used by the United States in its first flag, the Grand Union Flag. This flag was of a similar design to the one used by the British East India Company. Hawaii, a state of the
Union Jack the same monarch under what was known as a union of the crowns." In 1606, James VI gave orders for a British flag to be created which bore the combined crosses of St George and of St Andrew. The result was the Union Jack. According to the Flag Institute, a membership-run vexillological charity, "the national flag of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories is the Union Flag, which may also be called the Union Jack." The institute also notes: Notwithstanding Their Lordships' circular of 1902, by 1913 the Admiralty described the "Union Flag" and added in a