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===Baal’s Rise to Prominence===

For the most part, Baal’s initial rise in popularity was owed to his identification as a weather and warrior god. The Canaanites obviously saw those attributes as beneficial to their lives, so he was gradually elevated above other deities. Still, his widespread worship was due to several factors, most important of which was official sanction by the people of Ugarit. Ugarit first became an important city-state in the Middle Bronze Age, but it was during the Late Bronze Age when it exerted its true power. Although Ugarit was never one of the “Great Powers” of the Near East and was, for the most part, a vassal to the more powerful Mitanni and Hittite states, it was a powerful state nonetheless. Ugarit did not become powerful through its military, although it did have a formidable navy by its state-funded merchant class's efforts.