<em>A dramatic decline of the population in Europe in the 1300s was caused by the Bubonic Plague.
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The Bubonic Plague or Black Death devastated many European nations in the 1300s. The plague arrived at Europe in 1347 through the Sicilian port of Messina. Historians considered that the Bubonic Plague killed 20 million people in Europe. The sailors that navigated the trade routes of the time got the disease in Asia. In 1340, the plague had struck nations such as China, Egypt, Syria, India, and Persia.
Phoenicians may have discovered the dye as early as 1750 BC. The Phoenicians established a second production center for the dye in Mogador, in present-day Morocco.