Editing Flag of Slovenia (section)

===Origins===
[[File:Flag of the Slovene Nation.svg|thumb|1:2 {{FIAV|historical}} Flag of the Slovene nation, first flown during the [[spring of nations]] of 1848.]]
The white-blue-red Slovene flag was first raised on 7 April 1848, on a building between [[Congress Square]] and [[Prešeren Square]] in Ljubljana, by a group of nationally minded students led by the prominent [[liberal nationalist]] activist and poet [[Lovro Toman]]. Despite opposition from the local ethnic [[Germans]] it was subsequently recognized by the [[Austrian Empire|Austrian]] Government as the official flag of Carniola. This formal recognition, albeit on a regional level, was an exception to the policy of the Austrian Government which tended to persecute [[national symbols]] of the non-German nationalities in the [[Austrian Empire|Empire]].

In addition, Austrian authorities saw all tricolors as basically [[nationalist]] and potentially [[revolutionary]] symbols, so Austrian provinces (as the Empire itself) were only allowed to use [[Gallery of bicolor flags|bicolor]]s (the only exception being the flag of the [[Kingdom of Croatia and Slavonia]], since it was interpreted to be a combination of the [[Kingdom of Croatia (Habsburg)|Croatian]] and [[Kingdom of Slavonia|Slavonian]] bicolors). So the official recognition of the Carniolan white-blue-red tricolor instead of the traditional white-blue bicolor was seen as a major achievement by the [[Slovenes]] and it quickly became the symbol representing the idea of [[United Slovenia]]. In the second half of the 19th century, the Slovene national tricolor became the only truly all-Slovene symbol, representing all Slovenes, regardless of the historical region in which they lived.

The tricolor flag continued to be associated with Slovenia during the country's incorporation into [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], although officially the whole kingdom including Slovenia had the same flag, in this case, the blue-white-red. In the [[Interwar period|interwar]] period, it was also used by the Slovenes of the [[Julian March]] that were annexed to [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]], where it was prohibited and persecuted by the [[Italian fascism|fascist regime]].