struck me as unfamiliar.
Nope, it’s been quite familiar to even someone several hundred years ago.
Europeans civilization are 1000s of years old, America is a baby compared to them, the history and memory are very different.
Not really. The Greeks, the Arabs, yes. But 2,000 years ago the Europeans were were not "civilised" in the sense that we think of.
The Romans built roads, aqueducts, houses with central heating and massive great walls across the landscape.
They might have been violent but it’s hard to claim they weren’t a civilisation.