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 little girl seen waiting in a queue to participate in the Kumari Puja ritual in Kolkata, India on March 30, 2023. Kumari Puja is an Indian Hindu Tradition mainly celebrated during the Durga Puja / Basanti Puja / Navratri according to Hindu calendar. Kumari actually describes a young virgin girl from the age 1 to 16 who is getting worshipped during the transition of Ashtami / Navami tithi of Durga Puja / Navaratri according to Hindu mythology. (Photo by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A member of the public wears a pandemic face mask ahead of the prime minister announcing the government's Covid-19 winter strategy on September 13, 2021 in Manchester, England. Tomorrow, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will set out his plan to manage Covid-19 through the winter, including what actions would need to be taken if the NHS hospital system were at risk of being overwhelmed. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Stunning image capture the moment a tiny harvest mouse uses wheat stems as stilts as he munches on a kernel in UK in August 2025. The minute-mouse, who weighs as much as a 2p coin and is only two-inches-long, uses his prehensile tail to keep himself perfectly level. (Photo by Tony Nellis/South West News Service)

Ukrainian artist Dariya Marchenko works on a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin named “The Face of War” which is made out of 5,000 cartridges brought from the frontline in eastern Ukraine, in Kiev, July 23, 2015. The portrait will be presented along with a novel which will tell personal stories of six people involved in this project including Daria's own story and stories of people who helped her to collect shells from the frontline. Daria Marchenko calls her art approach philosophic symbolism where every element has its hidden meaning. In her works cartridges mean human's life that was brutally ended. (Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters)

Cheng Liping, whose husband Ju was onboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 which disappeared on March 8, 2014, shows a picture of she and her husband together and an old card with a message given by her husband, at a park near her house where she and her husband used to visit during an interview with Reuters in Beijing July 24, 2014. Cheng said her life has been totally changed since the incident. Their two little sons, who don't know about this incident, keep asking her when their dad is coming back. Six months after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, with 239 mostly Chinese people on board, disappeared about an hour into a routine journey from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing March 8, loved ones of missing passengers derive what comfort they can from what's left behind after the world's greatest aviation mystery. More than two dozen countries have been involved in the air, sea and underwater search for the Boeing 777 but months of sorties failed to turn up any trace – even after narrowing the search area to the southern Indian Ocean – long after batteries on the black box voice and data recorders had gone flat. (Photo by Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)

A group of women take photos of a giant donut installation outside the Maddox Gallery in Mayfair, London on Thursday June 24, 2021, to celebrate a new exhibition entitled Villainy, a body of work by an anonymous street artist from New York who operates under the alias, “Jerkface”. (Photo by Yui Mok/PA Wire Press Association)

Serbian police officers of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit pose for a picture in their base outside Belgrade October 8, 2014. When the killing of an unarmed black teenager by a white policeman in Ferguson, Missouri, in August sparked sometimes violent protests, the response of police in camouflage gear and armoured vehicles wielding stun grenades and assault rifles seemed more like a combat operation than a public order measure. Some U.S. police departments have recently acquired U.S. military-surplus hardware from wars abroad, but there are many law enforcers around the world whose rules of engagement also allow the use of lethal force with relatively few restrictions. But for every regulation that gives police wide scope to use firearms, there is another code that sharply limits their use. In Serbia, police may use measures ranging from batons to special vehicles, water cannon and tear gas on groups of people who have gathered illegally and are behaving in a way that is violent or could cause violence, but they may use firearms only when life is endangered. (Photo by Marko Djurica/Reuters)