This year marks the centenary of the first volume of Oswald Spengler's The Decline Of The West. It argued that history should not be divided, as it was in the Eurocentric view, into progression from ancient to mediaeval to modern. Instead, history is the staging ground for the rise and fall of high cultures.

Spengler's key cultures were Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, Mayan/Aztec, Greek/Roman, Arabian and European/American. Cultures flourish for about 1,000 years before they decline for an equal period, he argued. His message was ominous for the European/American ascendancy in global history.