In this Wednesday, November 15, 2012 file photo, a young girl in her colorful dress reaches out to greet a Pakistani policeman securing the road outside Kainat Riaz's home in Mingora, Swat Valley, Pakistan. (Photo by Anja Niedringhaus/AP Photo)

A demonstrator reacts when Molotov cocktails hit the ground in front of security forces during protests against election results after Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro and his opposition rival Edmundo Gonzalez claimed victory in Sunday's presidential election, in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela on July 29, 2024. (Photo by Samir Aponte/Reuters)

A woman and her child wade through flood waters in Feni on August 22, 2024. Floods triggered by torrential rains have swamped a swath of low-lying Bangladesh, disaster officials said on August 22, adding to the new government's challenges after weeks of political turmoil. (Photo by Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/AFP Photo)

In this Saturday, February 16, 2019 photo, carnival revelers dressed as characters from the movie “La Casa de Papel” pose for a picture during the “Desliga da Justica” block party in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. “Desliga” means in Portuguese to turn something off, and this street party is a parody of the Justice League. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

A police cadet casts her vote in the presidential election in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, March 18, 2018. Vladimir Putin headed to an overwhelming win in Russia' s presidential election Sunday, adding six years in the Kremlin for the man who has led the world' s largest country for all of the 21 st century. (Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP Photo)

In this January 4, 2016 photo, the weapon of a rebel fighter for the 36th Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, hangs from a branch serving as a makeshift clothesline, near a rebel camp, in Antioquia state, in the northwest Andes of Colombia. “We’ll lay aside our weapons, like the accord says, but never hand them over”, says Juan Pablo, a commander of the 36th Front. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP 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.

Lu Wei-ming (L), priest of the Wei-ming temple, and a worshipper burn a Taoist paper amulet during a prayer ritual at the temple in New Taipei city January 8, 2015. The shrine, down a narrow alleyway in a bustling district of the city, is dedicated to a deity who has watched over homosexuals for four centuries. Priest Lu founded the temple in 2006, at a time gays were excluded from most religious ceremonies. (Photo by Pichi Chuang/Reuters)