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→Why it Failed
The major event, however, that ended any possibility for the Ugaritic alphabet to influence our own was the Sea People disruptions that occurred by ca. 1200 BCE. We still do not exactly know what this series of events were and there may have been a number of related and unrelated events, but what we do know is that the great trade networks that were established began to be severely disrupted. Cities, such as Ugarit, were attacked and destroyed by people who almost resembled vikings, as they were seaborne raiders that attacked many of the wealth cities along the Levant. Major states at this time were either collapsing or retreated from parts of the Near East. This severe disruption created a major disruption not only to trade but also political and social life in the region for the next two hundred years. In effect, it created a dark age where we know relatively little what happened in the years from around 1200-1000 BCE. What we do know is that the Ugaritic alphabet seemed to have gone extinct by then as the city of Ugarit was destroyed. In a relatively sudden manner, a rival alphabetical script was extinguished.<ref>For more on the Late Bronze Age collapse, see: Cline, Eric H. 2015. <i>1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed.</i> Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>
The events, however, now created a perfect environment for the Canaanite alphabet to thrive and spread much further. As the major states that wrote in cuneiform and hieroglyphs either collapsed or receded in power, new population groups either moved into the region or developed from the older Semitic groups that existed there. These groups now searched for an easier script to use, as they were no longer bounded by the major scripts used by the larger states. Perhaps not surprisingly, they turned to the Canaanite alphabet and used it because it was relatively easy and there were no major alternatives by then. This alphabet soon developed different in various regions, where it was also transported by Phoenician merchants. Thus, although some call the early alphabet the Phoenician alphabet, in reality it probably was not the Phoenicians who developed the alphabet but rather they helped to spread it because they soon resumed merchant activities across the Mediterranean. This led to the Greeks and eventually others to adopt the now spreading script. With the dawn of major empires reemerging in the Iron Age, by about 800 BCE, the spread of the alphabet increased further and reached more distant regions.<ref>For more on the spread of the Canaanite alphabet, see: Senner, Wayne M., ed. 1991. <i>The Origins of Writing.</i> 1st paperback ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, pg. 90.</ref>
In effect, it was invasion by the Sea Peoples that destroyed one alphabet, the Ugaritic one, and enabled another, the Canaanite alphabet, to then spread. Such events in history indicate that sometimes sudden invasions or disruptions to the social and political norm create major power and social voids that are filled by new populations groups that are likely to promulgate new ideas and spread them.
