Alphabetic is phonic, cuneiform is pictographic.
The Phoenicians developed the Phoenician alphabet, also known as the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for writing. One theory is that it may have had its origins as an adaptation of the Egyptian hieroglyphs to the Canaanite language.
For communication and records.
In the Phoenician city-states.
The Phoenician trading ship spread their writing system around the Mediterranean Sea.
Egyptian hieroglyphs are pictographs that correspond the sound of the first syllable of the thing being depicted. Phoenician cuneiform writing uses abstract symbols to correspond with spoken sounds. The latter evolved into the Greek alphabet, then the Roman alphabet, and then into the modern Western alphabet.
Not really, no. The First modern, fully alphabetic writing system (including vowels) was the Greek alphabet, which was inspired by the Phoenician alphabet, which only had consonants.
Hieroglyphics
It was the first system of characters for phoenetic writing, on which Greek, Latin and modern European writing developed.
Phoenician writing, known as the Phoenician alphabet, was a simpler system composed of 22 consonants. In contrast, hieroglyphics were a complex system of pictorial symbols used in ancient Egypt and cuneiform was a wedge-shaped script used in Mesopotamia. Phoenician writing's innovation lay in using individual symbols to represent distinct sounds, making it easier to learn and more versatile for different languages.
Because that was the writing system that they invented.
The Egyptian writing system is very complex. It uses symbols, signs, and possibly pictures of plants and animals.
Mayan script was initially called "hieroglyphics" by 18th Century Europeans, because of it's similarity to Egyptian writing, and the system is similar to Egyptian writing, but term "hieroglyphics" is usually reserved for Egyptian writing. Mayan script is more often called "Mayan glyphs."