The history of ‘Union Jack’ extends through the period of colonization by the British government as it was then known as the British flag in the 16th century. The constituent states or countries of the United Kingdom possessed the ‘Union Jack’ at different time frames of history. The flag included the red cross of St. George and blue saltire of St. Andrew. The flag term ‘Union Jack’ was derived first through the name ‘Union’ in 1625. Later, the term was extended with the reference of small flags mounted in front of warships as ‘the jack’.
The British flag was formerly known as the ‘Union Jack’ in around 1674 as the portrayal of the flag mounted in warships. The national flag of the British at that extent was referred to as the ‘Union Flag’ but with the world wide reference of ‘Union Jack’ flag design as national flag by those sailors relaxed the rule in early 19th century.
The flag in 1606 as its first version came up with featuring only the English and Scottish flags. Later at the 1801 amendment, the Union Jack incorporated the cross of St. Patrick as a feature of the Ireland flag. At that extent, Welsh was already an inclusion of England governance. In this way, England got the Union Jack as its official national flag.
The first colonial banner of American states with the name of Grand Union Flag or Great Union Flag on Jan 1, 1776 by the former president George Washington. The flag had the British ‘Union Jack’ in its canton around 1606. The flag had fields of seven red and six white alternated stripes symbolizing 13 colonies. Later, the canton design was replaced officially by the Stars and Stripes on June 14, 1777.
After the United States was declared independent from the United Kingdom in 1776, the US started exercising their own flag with unique and independent state flags. Now Hawaii is the only state in the country with the ‘Union Jack’ at the canton area of its flag. The records show that both the United States and the United Kingdoms had competed for the territory of Hawaii. The ‘Union Jack’ was received by King Kamehameha 1 in 1793 from a former captain of the United Kingdom. Hawaii was independent at that time. Later, during the war of 1812 between the US and the UK, the flags of the United States were all over the king’s place just to build up war circumstances with the United kingdom. This brought up a situation of hostilities and the flag was removed after the objection from British officers. To build up a situation of compromise, the king tried implication of neutral favor to the fald by adding stripes of red white and blue to the Union Jack upon the recommendation from western advisors. Later, the stripes count was reduced to 8 by Kamehameha lll. Hawaii became a republic in 1894 by overthrowing the monarchy and became part of the US. It later got admission to the Union as a state on August 21, 1959 but the Union Jack is always at the inclusion of the flags of Hawaii.
