List of Historical National Anthems

List Of Historical National Anthems

The oldest national anthem, defined as "a song, as of praise, devotion, or patriotism", is the Dutch national anthem Het Wilhelmus, which was written between 1568 and 1572, but not then given any official status. The first anthem to be officially proclaimed as such was La Marcha Real, adopted by Spain in 1770. Het Wilhelmus was declared the national anthem of the Netherlands in 1932; both of these anthems remain in use today. A royal or imperial anthem is a song that is similar in patriotic character to a national anthem, but which specifically praises a monarch, or royal dynasty. Some states have doubled their royal or imperial anthem as their national anthem; for example, the Imperial Anthem of Iran, used from 1933 to 1979, served both as national anthem and as an explicit celebration of the Pahlavi dynasty.

An anthem may fall out of use if the country that uses it ceases to exist, or because it adopts a new anthem; the rationale for a new national anthem is often political, perhaps based on a new ruling dynasty or system of government. For example, following the French Revolution, which overthrew the monarchy, La Marseillaise, a republican revolutionary song, became national anthem in 1795. Conversely, when the monarchy was restored 19 years later, the 16th-century royalist tune Vive Henri IV was revived and adapted to create Le Retour des Princes français à Paris, an overt celebration of the restored government. Following a number of further changes, La Marseillaise was readopted in 1870 and remains France's contemporary national anthem.

Some historical anthems share the same tune; for example, Heil dir im Siegerkranz, the Imperial German anthem, used the same music as Britain's national anthem, God Save the Queen. There are also instances of the music of a former national anthem still being used in a current anthem; for instance, the modern national anthem of Germany, Das Lied der Deutschen, uses the same tune as the 19th and early 20th-century Austro-Hungarian anthem Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser. Another well-known example is the Hymn of the Soviet Union, used until its dissolution in 1991, which was given new words and adopted by the Russian Federation in 2000 to replace the unpopular instrumental anthem it had introduced in 1993.

This was not the first time that a country's de facto or de jure national anthem had proved controversial among its own people. My Country, 'Tis of Thee, a de facto anthem of the United States during the 19th century, divided opinion as it used the same tune as God Save the Queen. A more recent example is Hej, Sloveni, the former Yugoslavian anthem which was retained by Serbia and Montenegro until 2006; because it was frequently booed when played in public – at sporting events, for example – it was eventually replaced.