Friends of Li Guojun drive a homemade tank-shaped vehicle in Kangping county, China. Li, a farmer who is a fan of tanks, spent six months with help from his friends to construct the almost 20-foot vehicle which weighs 2.5 tons. (Photo by Sheng Li/Reuters)

Kandy Freeman participates in a Black Lives Matter protest in front of Trump Tower in New York City, U.S. January 14, 2017. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

Undated handout photo of Buckbeak, a Hippogriff that lived with Rubeus Hagrid in the Harry Potter series, has his feathers preened and replenished by featherologist Val Jones, as he will feature in the the Feathers and Flight event at Warner Bros. Studio Tour London. This is the first make-over Buckbeak has received since the hugely popular Harry Potter film series was made. His intricate coat is created from thousands of individually airbrushed chicken and goose feathers that Val will carefully clean and replenish in time for the start of Feathers and Flight. Val will lead an expert team to demonstrate the techniques that made winged wonders such as Buckbeak and Fawkes the Phoenix a reality on screen. (Photo by Tim Anderson/PA Wire)

A sunflower “smiles” in a field in Tokyo on August 7, 2014. Some 20,000 sunflowers were enjoyed by visitors to the area this week. (Photo by Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP Photo)

A commuter gestures to Boris Johnson as he rides across Vauxhall Bridge in London, England on November 19, 2015. The London mayor was opening a cycle superhighway. (Photo by John Stillwell/PA Wire)

Afghan dogs fight during the weekly dog fight in Kabul, Afghanistan, 17 February 2017. Under the Taliban dog fighting was forbidden, but since their fall it has become a major source of entertainment for hundreds of Afghans, where bets can amount to thousands of dollars and the dogs, which must be over one year old, are well-cared for by their owners and fed milk, butter and meat. (Photo by Hedayatullah Amid/EPA)

Do you think that history is a science? Well, not exactly. First, and foremost, history is the state's “legend of wars”, it’s official regalia. Of course, public historians are not interested in scientific truth – quite the opposite. In this respect, any attempt to present a state’s history as altruistic and benevolent as possible is welcomed and encouraged – as opposed to any revisionism attempts that may be more accurate. In this matter, Chinese have surpassed us all – they revised in highly creative manner (but rather shamelessly) the technology already invented by Europeans, a process that resulted in oldest state on the planet. Here is an interesting paradox: ask any sinologist about the Middle Kingdom during second century B.C., and he will describe it to you in such a vivid manner as if he has been living there all his life – but as soon as you will ask him to describe Chinese history in the 19-20th centuries… let's say, his eagerness will be greatly diminished. However, we will discuss China in a different article, and in the meantime we will try to understand how exactly historic “legend of wars” is formed and functions – based on a specific and well-known example. A great example is Ferdinand Magellan's first voyage around the world.

An image of a Fennec fox painted on a tree hole by Wang Yue is seen in Shijiazhuang, on March 13, 2013. Wang Yue, a senior at Dalian Industry University, uses her paintbrush to turn ugly tree holes into lovely views in Shijiazhuang, capital city of Hebei Province, China. Wang and her companions call the tree-hole paintings “meitu”, which means “beautiful journey”. The paintings on the trees have brightened the city during the dull, grey winter. (Photo by Pillar Lee/Reuters)

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