It's a pity that certain words fall out of favour. I think that "civilise" should be rehabilitated. According to the dictionary, it means "teach or refine to be discriminative in taste or judgement". Synonyms include educate, train, refine and cultivate.
The problem has been with a second definition: "raise from a barbaric to a civilised state". This brings memories of Western colonialism where indigenous people were denigrated and "civilisation" was imposed, often with brute force.
We need to separate the benefits of literacy and technology from other elements of what is considered "civilised". Nazi Germany showed that the country of Beethoven, Goethe and Einstein could descend into utter barbarism.
It is only relatively recently that full human rights were granted in today's leading democracies. For instance, women only got the equal right to vote in America in 1920 and in Britain in 1928.
Cruel punishments were rife in medieval England. Under King Henry VIII, about 72 000 people were executed by various methods including boiling, burning at the stake, decapitation and hanging, sometimes including drawing and quartering while still alive.
Between 1400 and 1850, the "Bloody Code" included 220 crimes punishable by death, including "being in the company of gypsies for one month" and "strong evidence of malice in a child aged 7 - 14 years of age".