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White flags have had different meanings throughout history and depending on the locale.
Flag of negotiators, neutral parties, or surrendering parties
The white flag is an international sign of truce or ceasefire, and request for negotiation. It is also often associated with surrender, since it is often the weaker military party which requests negotiation. A white flag signifies to all that an approaching negotiator is unarmed, with an intent to surrender or a desire to communicate. Persons carrying or waving a white flag are not to be fired upon, nor are they allowed to open fire. The use of the flag to surrender is included in the Geneva Convention.
The improper use of a white flag is forbidden by the rules of war and constitutes a war crime of perfidy. There have been numerous reported cases of such behaviour in conflicts, such as fighters using white flags as a ruse to approach and attack enemies, or killings of fighters attempting to surrender by carrying white flags.
Origin
The first mention of the usage of white flags to surrender is made during from the Eastern Han dynasty (A.D 25-220). In the Roman Empire, the historian Cornelius Tacitus mentions a white flag of surrender in A.D. 109. Before that time, Roman armies would surrender by holding their shields above their heads. The usage of the white flag has since spread worldwide.
Umayyad dynasty
The Umayyad dynasty ruled for ninety years (661-750) over the Islamic world, using white as their symbolic color as a reminder of Muhammad's first battle at Badr, and to distinguish themselves from the Abbasids, by using white, rather than black, as their color of mourning. White is one of the pan-Arab colors because of that period.
Ancien Régime in France
During the period of the Ancien Régime, in the 18th century, the royal standard of France became a plain white flag. The white color was also used as a symbol of military command, by the commanding officer of a French army.
After the French Revolution, in 1794, the Tricolor was adopted as the official flag of France, sometimes covered in fleur-de-lis. The white flag quickly became a symbol of French royalists. During the Bourbon Restoration period in France, it replaced the Tricolor, seen as a symbol of regicide. The French troops fighting in the American War of Independence fought under the white flag. It was finally abandoned in 1830, with the July Revolution.
In 1873, an attempt to reestablish the monarchy failed because of the refusal of Henri d'Artois, who was to become king, to accept the Tricolor. He demanded the return of the white flag.
Racing
A white racing flag is displayed from the starter's tower indicates that the race leader is running his/her final lap.
Buddhist countries
In Buddhist countries, white is the colour of mourning, so a white flag is used where other cultures might fly a black flag.
Taliban Afghanistan
During the Afghanistan civil war, the flag used by the Taliban was a plain white flag. When they took over Kabul in 1996, and established the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, it became the national flag of the country, representing 'the purity of their faith and government'. After 1997, the Taliban added the Shahadah to the flag.
Use in fiction
An unadorned white flag was the standard of the Stewards of Gondor in the Middle-earth legendarium of author J.R.R. Tolkien.
See also
"White flag"