Maranhão
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The flag of Maranhão features nine horizontal stripes alternating red, white, and black, with a blue canton containing a single white star. The nine stripes represent the three races that formed the state's population — Indigenous, European, and African — with three stripes for each. The blue canton with a white star symbolizes the state's place in the Brazilian federation. The design recalls both the American and Liberian flags in its striped-with-canton layout.
Maranhão's capital São Luís is the only Brazilian state capital founded by the French, who named it after King Louis XIII in 1612 before being expelled by the Portuguese.
Adopted: 1889
