Not sure this is a great example for your point, given that in between then and now Europe conquered most of the world. I don’t think it’d be hard to argue that in the long term they were the “victors” and as such their great opponents and fears became The Enemy in the history books.

This only really works as a counter-point if you interpret it overly literally as only referring to the winners of a particular conflict, whereas in my experience at least, this isn’t what most people repeating the sentiment actually mean. Usually it’s something more akin to “history is often written and taught in a way that furthers the goals of the current hegemon,” that’s just not quite as snappy.

I’m guessing the issue that makes people talk past each other when talking about this idea is that it’s most famously used in reference to World War II where “winner of the conflict” and “leader of the global order” were about as close to the same thing as they have ever been.