Flag of the Cook Islands Flag of the Cook Islands The flag of the Cook Islands, officially known as the Cook Islands Ensign, is based on the traditional design for former British colonies in the Pacific region. It is a blue ensign containing the Union Flag in the upper left, and on the right, fifteen stars in a ring. The Union Flag is symbolic of the nation's historic ties to the United Kingdom and to the Commonwealth of Nations. The stars stand for the fifteen islands that make up the Cook Islands (Tongareva, Rakahanga, Manihiki, Pukapuka, Nassau, Suwarrow, Palmerston, Aitutaki, Manuae, Takutea, Atiu, Mitiaro, Mauke,
History of the Cook Islands Mendaña in 1595 who called it "San Bernardo" (Saint Bernard). Portuguese-Spaniard Pedro Fernández de Quirós made the first recorded European landing in the islands when he set foot on Rakahanga in 1606, calling it "Gente Hermosa" (Beautiful People). British navigator Captain James Cook arrived in 1773 and 1777. Cook named the islands the 'Hervey Islands' to honour a British Lord of the Admiralty. Half a century later the Russian Baltic German Admiral Adam Johann von Krusenstern published the "Atlas de l'Ocean Pacifique", in which he renamed the islands the Cook Islands to honour Cook. Captain Cook navigated and mapped much