Demonstrators protest against police shootings and racial injustice in New York City, U.S., April 16, 2021. (Photo by David “Dee” Delgado/Reuters)

A girl jumps to touch cherry blossoms in full bloom in Fussa, outskirts Tokyo, Japan, 05 April 2014. Temperatures being very constant made blossoms to keep full bloom for holiday makers. (Photo by Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)

Passengers with their pet dogs take a pet-friendly train on the Jinyidong Line of the Jinhua Rail Transit on June 22, 2025 in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province of China. (Photo by Shi Bufa/VCG via Getty Images)

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 young girl plays on the glass bottom platform of the Oriental Pear TV Tower as she travels with her family on the second day of the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, also known as Spring Festival, in Shanghai, China on February 18, 2018. Some 287 million tourists travelled in China during the first four days of the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, up 11.1 percent from the same period last year, new data showed Sunday. (Photo by Imaginechina/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Immigrants from the West Indies at Victoria Station in London, 1956. (Photo by Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Hundreds of people from a range of NGOs and campaign groups protest to demand the immediate restoration of nature at DEFRA – Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs on September 28, 2023 in London, England. The 2023 State of Nature Report revealed that approximately one in six species in Great Britain, including turtle doves and hazel dormice, are at risk of extinction, citing climate change, intensive farming, and pollution as major threats, with a 19% average decline in monitored plant and animal populations since 1970. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)

A 40-foot sculpture of the swimmer Rebecca Adlington was unveiled at the Serpentine in London’s Hyde Park on July 25, 2016 to launch a campaign by Kelloggs to encourage the public to support Team GB at the Rio Olympics. (Photo by David Parry/PA Wire/Barcroft Images)