The OED history of the word:

Civilization 1772 BOSWELL Johnson xxv, On Monday, March 23, I found him [Johnson] busy, preparing a fourth edition of his folio Dictionary..He would not admit civilization, but only civility. With great deference to him, I thought civilization, from to civilize, better in the sense opposed to barbarity, than civility. 1775 in ASH [see 2]. a1790 WARTON (T.), The general growth of refinement and the progression of civilisation. 1790 BURKE Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 154 Our manners, our civilization, and all the good things which are connected with manners, and with civilization. 1814 SIR T. MUNRO Evid. bef. Comm. H of C., Then the Hindoos are not inferior in civilization to the people of Europe. 1857 BUCKLE Civiliz. I. ii. 45 The seat of Egyptian civilization; a civilization which..forms a striking contrast to the barbarism of the other nations of Africa. Ibid. 46 The civilization of Europe..has shown a capacity of development unknown to those civilizations which were originated by soil. 1865 LECKY Ration. (1878) I. 18 The ancient civilisations. 1874 HELPS Soc. Press. iii. 42 The more advanced the civilization, the less powerful is the individual.(OED Online)

civ·i·lize
Pronunciation: 'si-v&-"lIz
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -lized; -liz·ing
Date: 1601
transitive senses
1 : to cause to develop out of a primitive state; especially : to bring to a technically advanced and rationally ordered stage of cultural development
2 a : EDUCATE, REFINE b : SOCIALIZE 1
intransitive senses : to acquire the customs and amenities of a civil community
- civ·i·liz·er noun