| @DarkPassenger- The idea that the US is a young country always bothered me. Maybe if you extend the idea of nationhood to whenever a bunch of people considered themselves a oountry than yeah, the US is middle aged, but in terms of government, the US is probably 2nd only to the UK. As to our flag, that's pretty old too. Think about it: the idea that every country needs a flag came w/ European colonization and July 3rd, 1776, no country in the Americas was independent and European colonization of the other continents was just beginning. And in Europe, Germany and Italy were still a bunch of city-states, France hadn't had its revolution, and Eastern Europe was under a bunch of empires that don't exist anymore. That being said, the US flag isn't that influential. My guess would be that the most influential flags are the UK, France, Russia, Ethiopia (the inspiration for a lot of flags in Africa)and the flag of the Arab revolt (although the Soviet flag was winning for a while). |