there are 196 countries in the world today and virtually none of them have
purple on their national flag. Throughout history, purple was never used
to represent a kingdom civilization or Empire. So what's wrong with purple?
It's such a popular color today. why would no country use it in their flag?
the answer is really quite simple purple was just far too expensive.
No countries have purple on their flag because up until the 1800s purple was
worth more than its weight in gold the color purple has been associated
with royalty power and wealth for centuries. In fact, Queen Elizabeth the
first forbade anyone except close members of the royal family to wear it.
Purple's elite status stems from the rarity and cost of the dye originally
used to produce it the dye initially used to make purple came from the
Phoenician trading city of Tyre which is now in modern-day Lebanon fabric traders
obtained the dye from a small sea snail that was only found in the tyre region
of the Mediterranean a lot of work went into producing the dye as more than
10,000 snails were needed to create just one gram of tyree and purple since only
wealthy rulers could afford to buy and wear the color it became associated with
the Imperial classes of Rome Egypt and Persia purple also came to represent
spirituality and holiness because the ancient Emperor's kings and queens that
wore the color were often thought of as gods or descendants of the gods
sometimes however the dye was too expensive even for royalty third century
Roman Emperor aurelion famously wouldn't allow his wife to buy a shawl made from
tyree and purple silk because it literally cost three times its weight in
gold a single pound of dye cost three pounds
of gold which is the equivalent of fifty six thousand dollars today so since the
sheer price of purple was so astronomically high
no one not when the richest nations could afford to
have purple on their flag the hue became more accessible to lower-class is about
a century and a half ago in 1856 18-year old English chemist William Henry Perkin
accidentally created a synthetic purple compound while attempting to synthesize
quinine an anti-malaria drug he noticed that the compound could be used to dye
fabrics so he patented the dye manufactured it and got filthy rich
purple dye was then mass-produced so just about everybody could afford it the
elite stopped valuing purple and the status symbol faded away but the country
flags remain the same since 1900 a handful of new national flags have been
designed and a few of them have opted to use purple in their flag so don't be
making any bets just yet hopefully you found this interesting sometimes the
simplest questions have the most fascinating answers for more interesting
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