What if the Phoenician alphabet had gone differently?

A set of ~22 signs for sounds, not words, spreads with Phoenician traders around the Mediterranean.

If it had gone differently: Writing stays a scribal priesthood's monopoly of hundreds of signs; ordinary merchants and citizens never learn to read.

The real history on Wikipedia ↗

Later turning points that leaned on the Phoenician alphabet. Change it in the game and the ripples reach all of these.

1. -508Athenian democracy. Without it, Self-rule by citizens is never even attempted in the ancient world; the moderns have no example to point back to.
2. -400Greek natural philosophy. Without it, Reasoned enquiry into how the world works never takes hold; there is no classical canon for medieval scholars to recover.