The use of Arabic numerals in Europe is attributed to the Italian mathematician Fibonacci. In 1202 he published a book called Liber Acci, which taught Arabic numerals and Algebra and strongly advocated the use of Arabic numerals in society.
Prior to the time of Fibonacci, the primary numeral system used in Europe was the Roman system discussed above. Acceptance of the Arabic numerals pushed by Fibonacci took time to come, however. In fact, even today the Roman numeral system is still used, primarily in copyright dates for books and movies. This practice has been dying out, however, since it is so much easier to write, for example, 1998 than it is to write MCMXCVIII.
Use of the Hindu-Arabic numerals is now the prevalent number system throughout the world. With the development of the printing press in the 16th century, the numerals have become standardized, and this has only increased with the development of computers. Our numeral system will be with us for a long time, and it is unlikely that we will be seeing changes any time soon.