Taken from Wiki.

Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of multimedia technologies developed and distributed by Adobe Systems and earlier by Macromedia. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and, more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.

lets break this down

1. Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages.
2. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components.
3. to integrate video into web pages.


In short it was intended to enhance a page and add a way for people to create movie like animations and interactivity. Before flash the only animations where .gifs and the only real interactivity was created with java scripts. It was never intended for people to create entire web pages using only flash. It was never intended to replace html, php, .asp etc. It was only intended to enhance them.


My .02