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Dante was born in Florence, where in 1274 he first met and fell in love with Beatrice Portinari (described in La vita nuova/New Life (128392)). His love for her survived her marriage to another man and her death in 1290 at the age of 24. According to the writer Boccaccio, from 1283 to 1289 Dante was engaged in study, and after the death of Beatrice he seems to have entered into a period of intense philosophic study. In 1289 he fought in the battle of Campaldino, won by Florence against Arezzo, and from 1295 took an active part in Florentine politics. In 1300 he was one of the six priors of the Republic, favouring the moderate Guelph party rather than the extreme papal Ghibelline faction (see Guelph and Ghibelline); when the Ghibellines seized power in 1302, he was convicted in his absence of misapplication of public money and sentenced to death. He escaped from Florence and spent the remainder of his life in exile, in central and northern Italy.
The blue and white triband is based on the flag of the Central American Federation (CAF), a grouping of African states imposed by the British government in 1953. The stars represent the Federation's five original members. Effective date: 18 January 1949.
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