For instance, in Spanish, the letter “v” is pronouced like the letter “b” in English. Why not just use the letter b? Who decided that for this sound, we’re going to use this letter, even though other users of this alphabet use a different one? I’m not trying to be English-centric here. We could just as easily use the Italian “ci” for the English “ch.” And don’t get me started on how “eaux” somehow equates to a long “o.” I get that English has a different language branch than the Romance languages, but we all use (basically) the same alphabet.
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The short answer is the Romans.
The Romans conquered a ton of Europe and spread their language and writing system to lots of places.
And then Roman Empire fell apart and all the places they conquered became separate nations again and the language developed in its own direction in each place. But they kept a lot of the writing system, even as sounds drifted apart gradually over time.
That’s for the Latin alphabet and Europe at least, but similar stories have occurred around the world.
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