Portugal hoist band

Why this color matters

Portugal's green is usually explained as hope, as if it were an ancient national colour. The official Presidency archive tells a more awkward story: the 1910 flag commission called green the colour of hope but admitted it had no historical tradition to lean on. It belongs first to the republican break with the blue-and-white monarchy, not to a timeless landscape legend.

Before the flag, a revolt

The red and green came from the republican movement of 31 January 1891. On 5 October 1910 Machado Santos's flag flew at Lisbon's Rotunda, army barracks and São Jorge Castle, but with red at the hoist and green taking the larger share. The commission's lasting intervention was a reversal: green moved to the hoist and became the smaller field.

As for the green, the color of hope, the Commission had difficulty justifying its inclusion in the Flag.

Portuguese Presidency archive

Approved in stages

The Provisional Government appointed its commission on 15 October 1910 and approved the final project on 29 November. The National Constituent Assembly sanctioned it on 19 June 1911; technical measurements followed on 30 June. They create a 2:3 flag with two-fifths green, three-fifths scarlet, and the armillary sphere and shield spanning their join.

A colour name, not a hex

The 1911 decree says dark green and scarlet; its text does not encode RGB. Toon Tone's #006600 is therefore the study's consistent digital target, not a claim that the Assembly legislated six hexadecimal digits. The law fixes the description and geometry; the game fixes one screen answer.

The exact green

#006600 is RGB 0/102/0 and HSB(120°, 100%, 40%). Its hue is exactly pure green and its saturation is maximal, but brightness is only 40%. Dark does not mean muddy: red and blue are both zero. The player trap is treating “fully saturated” as “bright” and dragging the value upward. Mexico, Nigeria and Brazil's sibling greens are the wrong shortcuts.