Flag of Cape Verde interpretations of the Pantone standards. Before independence from Portugal, Cape Verde did not have an official flag, and the Portuguese national flag was used. In the late 1960s, a flag for the Portuguese overseas province of Cape Verde was proposed, consisting of the flag of Portugal with the shield from the provincial arms added to the lower fly. However, this flag was never adopted. The original national flag of Cape Verde was introduced on independence in 1975, and was based on the flag of the Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC). It used the common
African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde unprecedented as it denounced the Portuguese colonial rule as aggression and occupation. The UN recognition was prior to Portuguese recognition. The conflict had seen 1,875 Portuguese soldiers (out of 35,000 stationed in Portuguese Guinea) and some 6,000 (out of 10,000) PAIGC troops killed by the end of the eleven-year war. After achieving independence, the PAIGC was instituted as the sole legal political party of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, with Luís Cabral becoming President of Guinea-Bissau. A second set of one-party elections were held in 1976 and 1977. Although the PAIGC strove for a union between Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, the