The Phoenician contributions to the world are numerous, but the main ones include:
- the spread of purple dye throughout the Mediterranean, which they were famous for (the term "tyrian purple" refers to this dye and the Phoenician city of Tyre)
- the spread of the Phoenician alphabet
- the beginnings of widespread trade throughout the Mediterranean
- the prevention of heavy Roman invasion of North Africa around the area of modern Tunisia, where Carthage was located
- Phoenician glass, as they were the first civilization to discover how to make transparent glass
- the heavy spread of bronze throughout their trade routes, as they collected tin, silver, copper, and combined them to make bronze from their cities and colonies
- through Latin and Greek the word bible ultimately comes from the Phoenician city of Byblos, because of its papyri, Byblos was the source of the Greek word for book and the name of the Bible