CHINA: Customers eat at a restaurant as a cooked pig sits on a cart on the street outside in Hong Kong, China, December 12, 2016. (Photo by David Gray/Reuters)

Cristine Angelie Garcia (C), 24, rides a jeepney on her way to work at a call centre for the midnight shift in Taguig city, Metro Manila, Philippines October 3, 2016. “Maybe there is another way where people do not need to die”, she said, adding she felt safer walking the streets at night. “I'm on Duterte's side. Maybe he's just misunderstood because he grew up on the streets”. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Reuters)

Visitors watch as Grigory Broverman, a member of the Cryophile winter swimmers club, pours a bucket of cold water over his 6-year-old daughter Liza during a flash mob, part of a celebration of Polar Bear Day at the Royev Ruchey Zoo in a suburb of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, November 29, 2015. The air temperature was around minus 5 degrees Celsius. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

A team of Irish dancers celebrate after winning the under 12's group kaylee World Irish Dance Championship on April 2, 2016 in Brighton, England. The 8th World and 11th European Irish Dance Championships sees over 1500 dancers from 26 countries, speaking over 20 languages, competing in a variety of contests at the Brighton Centre on the city's beachfront. The event is organised by the World Irish Dance Association and is billed as the “Irish Dance Spectacular”. (Photo by Chris Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

U.S. Air Force wounded warrior, Capt. Sarah Evans, jumps rope in a gym in San Antonio, Texas. Evans was diagnosed with cancer while deployed to Afghanistan and was medically evacuated back to the United States where her leg was amputated. (Photo by Master Sgt. Jeffrey Allen/U.S. Air Force)

Marine biologist Simon Pierce, who studies whale sharks, happened to be in the right place at the right time to capture amazing photo off Cancun, Mexico. (Photo by Simon Pierce/Mercury Press/Caters News)

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.

This photo taken on February 10, 2025 shows a captured green iguana being held by hunters after it was brought down by a slingshot in Pingtung. Taiwan's iguana population has exploded since the spikey-backed giant lizards were introduced from Central and South America more than 20 years ago as exotic pets. Many escaped or were dumped by their owners and have bred rapidly in the warm climate of southern Taiwan, invading neighbourhoods and ravaging farmers' crops. (Photo by I-Hwa Cheng/AFP Photo)