The truth is that you will almost never see a country with purple on its flag. The reason why?
Today, in the world there are 196 countries with 196 separate flags. But there is something quite special about them – that almost none of the flags are purple. In human history, we also witness a similar thing with purple: this color has not been used to symbolize a royal family, an empire.
But what about purple? Why is it so “discriminatory”?
Purple is a symbol of wealth, nobility and prestige.
Before the 18th century, purple was a symbol of wealth, nobility and prestige. The reason was because back then, the substance used to dye purple was extremely rare.
In ancient times, Phoenicia – one of the famous ancient civilizations relied heavily on maritime trade. Therefore, merchants are always looking to make their products as valuable as possible. And the cloth merchants have done this.
They extracted purple color from a type of sea slug that can only be found along the coasts of Sidon and Tire, in present-day Lebanon. It takes about 10,000 slugs just to make… 1g of dye!
The snail Murex Brandaris – due to the excessive “requisition” of the Phoenicians has become extinct.
Therefore, the cost of that beautiful dye is not small, only the royal family can afford to buy them to dye their clothes. Purple later became a symbol of the wealthy ruling class, especially in Egypt, Rome and Persia.
Purple comes in many shades, and is the most famous of Tire’s purples, aka (Tyrian purple).
This color is even so expensive that not all royalty can afford it.
This color is even so expensive that not all royalty can afford it. In the 3rd century AD, Aurelianus – one of the greatest emperors in Roman history, who invaded countless lands – did not agree to buy his wife the purple silk shawl she liked. because the price to pay is too high!
And because of this, not a single country, not even the richest empires, can’t afford to print purple flags.
It wasn’t until the 3rd Industrial Revolution, in 1856, that 18-year-old British chemist William Henry Perkin stumbled upon the recipe for purple dye while researching how to prepare an antimalarial drug.
William Henry Perkin.
Realizing that the substance he had just created could be used to dye fabrics, he produced it himself to sell and became rich. From here, purple chemicals were produced in huge quantities and became mass.
Anyone can wear a purple shirt or a pair of socks, and the notions of wealth associated with this color gradually fade away. However, there is one thing that has not changed and we can still see it today: it is very rare for a flag to be purple.
Of course, there are still a few countries that choose purple. Around the 1990s, due to political changes, new countries were born – along with their flags. And a few of them have chosen purple, such as the Republic of Nicaragua (1908), the island nation of Dominica (1967), the Second Spanish Republic (1931 – 1939), …
Dominica.
Second Spanish Republic.