Why isn’t there a universal sign language? One that everyone around the world could learn so that they would be understood no matter where they lived, or travelled to? Who decided it was a better idea to have more than one?
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As others have said, most sign languages were developed in a time where communication across continent were difficult. To add to that reason, not all languages were artificially (in lack of a better word) developed to help deaf people, some have been developed spontaneously by deaf people themselves.
That’s the case of the Nicaraguan sign language that was created in a deaf community center around 1970. The teachers were trying to teach them sign spelling but failed. So the kids developed sign language on their own, with its own grammar and vocabulary https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicaraguan_Sign_Language
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