Italy's Federica Brignone's helmet is seen after their run at the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on January 25, 2025. (Photo by Gintare Karpaviciute/Reuters)

Devotees offer prayers during New Year's Day at a Hindu temple in Colombo on January 1, 2025. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

Visitors pose for a picture next to a mallard duck on the cobblestones of St Peter's Square with St Peter's Basilica in the background at The Vatican, on May 5, 2025. (Photo by Alberto Pizzoli/AFP Photo)

A servicewoman of the 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attends a military drill near a frontline in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine on August 11, 2025. (Photo by Ukrainian Armed Forces via Reuters)

Miss Lovely Legs competition at the Pick 'n Pay hypermarket in Boksburg, South Africa, 1980. (Photo by David Goldblatt/Museum of Contemporary Art Australia)

Zoo keeper Ross Poulter holds a White's Tree Frog in Edinburgh Zoo's new tropical forest zone on September 9, 2011 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The Brilliant Birds Exhibit which brings together beautiful and rare birds from all over the world is now more colourful and unusual, with the unveiling of the zoo's new tropical forest zone bringing together a collection of vertebrates, invertebrates and amphibians for the very first time. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are seen during the G20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina November 30, 2018. G20 powers open two days of summit talks on Friday after a stormy buildup dominated by tensions with Russia and US President Donald Trump's combative stance on trade and climate fears. (Photo by Marcos Brindicci/Reuters)

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.