A man wearing a hazmat suit and a mask holds a sign reading “The end is near – call grandma” at Times Square on March 14, 2020 in New York City. The World Health Organization said March 13, 2020 it was not yet possible to say when the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 5,000 people worldwide, will peak. “It's impossible for us to say when this will peak globally”, Maria Van Kerkhove, who heads the WHO's emerging diseases unit, told a virtual press conference, adding that “we hope that it is sooner rather than later”. (Photo by Johannes Eisele/AFP Photo)

Palestinian barber Ramadan Odwan styles and straightens the hair of a customer with fire at his salon in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip February 2, 2017. In Ramadan Odwan's barbershop in Gaza, hair isn't just blow-dried, it's blowtorch-dried. “People have gone crazy about it, many people are curious to go through the experience and they are not afraid”, he told Reuters. “People here love adventures”. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

Fossilized whale bones are on display outside the Wati El Hitan Fossils and Climate Change Museum, a UNESCO natural World Heritage site, on the opening day, in the Fayoum oasis, Egypt, Thursday, January 14, 2016. Egypt has cut the ribbon on the Middle East's first fossil museum housing the world's largest intact skeleton of a "walking whale" in an attempt to attract much-needed tourists driven off by recent militant attacks. The construction of the much-hyped Fossils and Climate Change Museum was covered a 2 billion euros (2. 17 billion dollars) grant from Italy, according to Italian Ambassador Maurizio Massari. Its centerpiece is an intact, 37-million-year-old and 20-meter-long skeleton of a legged form of whale that testifies to how modern-day whales evolved from land mammals. The sand-colored, dome-shaped museum is barely discernible in the breathtaking desert landscape that stretches all around. (Photo by Thomas Hartwell/AP Photo)

Nepalese women and young girls struggle to drink homemade alcohol poured through a pipe sticking out of the mouth of Swet Bhairab, a god of Power, during the Indra Jatra festival at Basantapur Durbar Square in Kathmandu, Nepal, 17 September 2016. Hundreds of women and young girls gathered to drink alcohol as a blessing from idol of Swet Bhairab which they believes will keep them free from all diseases. The Indra Jatra festival is celebrated to honor Indra, the king of gods and god of rains. The festival also marks the end of the monsoon. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

The festival marks the end of the monsoon season and beginning of autumn. More than hundred girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in Newar community. It is a community affair held primarily to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. Photo: A young Nepalese girl dressed as a Kumari or living Goddess, smiles for camera as she waits for Kumari puja at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square in Katmandu, Nepal, Tuesday, September 17, 2013. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Topless protesters from the organization PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) stand with “banderillas” filled with red powder as about 100 people rally in front of the town hall square in Pamplona, Navarra, northern Spain, demonstrating against the treatment of fighting bulls in the Fiesta de San Fermin, 05 July 2017. The renowned eight-day festival made famous by Ernest Hemingway's 1926 novel “The Sun Also Rises” has running-with-the-bulls and a bullfight each day for the fair, which begins at noon on 06 July 2017. (Photo by Jim Hollander/EPA)

A boy poses for a picture amid clashes between supporters of Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada and Iraqi security forces in Tahrir Square in the centre of Iraq's capital Baghdad on September 28, 2022, during a parliament session in the nearby high-security Green Zone across the Tigris river. Three rockets were fired at Baghdad's Green Zone, wounding seven security force personnel as parliament was holding its first session in two months, Iraq's security forces said. The parliament, at the centre of a months-long political paralysis, met for the first since deadly unrest in August to vote on the resignation of its speaker. (Photo by Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP Photo)

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.