A woman visits the mirror installation “Mar de Espelhos” (Sea of Mirrors) ahead of its opening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on June 13, 2023. (Photo by Ricardo Moraes/Reuters)

Motocross riders compete on the beach on October 15, 2023 in Weymouth, United Kingdom. The motocross event, which first came to the town in 1984, organised by Weymouth and Portland Lions Club in association with Purbeck Motocross Club, sees over 300 riders compete over a course along Weymouth beach. (Photo by Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

A red deer stag in Bushy Park, southwest London, pulls a comical face for the camera in the second decade of November 2023. (Photo by Andrew Wood/Caters News Agency)

Devotees of Santa Muerte visit her shrine in the Tepito neighborhood on the eve of the Day of the Dead in Mexico City, Mexico on October 31, 2022. (Photo by Gustavo Graf/Reuters)

People dressed in underwear run into a store to pick free clothes during a promotional event starting the summer sale at an outlet of the Desigual clothing retailer in Berlin, June 20, 2014. Desigual treated the first 100 customers with a free outfit if they stripped down to their underwear for the first day of the outlet's summer sale. (Photo by Thomas Peter/Reuters)

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.

A man plays in front of a wave crashing into Beirut's Corniche, a seaside promenade, as high winds sweep through Lebanon ahead of an impending storm January 6, 2015. (Photo by Jamal Saidi/Reuters)