European history is made up of culture after culture being changed by circumstance, invasion, subjugation, technological advancements etc. Those European cultures that were robust or useful survived, those that werent didn't. Same goes for all nations and all cultures on any continent.

Many European peoples (not the majority, however) and other high cultures have written records to help maintain their histories. Cultures that had less achievements had few methods of recording their history such as writing or art.

Such a silly thing to group Europeans as one class, as well. There's a impossibly big gap between the achievements of the Aztecs vs the Cree for instance, so we wouldn't be fair to group them together as an umbrella of "North Americans"