A boy reaches for a ball on a creek clogged with plastic waste on April 15, 2023 in Caloocan, Metro Manila, Philippines. (Photo by Ezra Acayan/Getty Images)

Mothers-to-be show their belly paintings in Hefei, east China's Anhui province on May 8, 2020. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock/China Stringer Network)

People stand along Aviation Blvd. as the space shuttle Endeavour lands at LAX in Los Angeles. (Photo by Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

A loved-up couple have captured the moments they shared a dip-kiss in different locations around the world. Rob, 34, and Joli Switzer, 33, from Maryland, embark on a minimum of four international holidays per year to ensure that they get their unique dip-kiss photograph. Here: Rob Switzer 34 proposed to Joli 33 whilst they were on holiday in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Dipkiss Travels/Caters News Agency)

Charli XCX arrives for the 30th Annual ARIA Awards 2016 at The Star on November 23, 2016 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

Four pillars of light from the 4 Laser Guide Star Facility on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) are shown reaching into the Chilean night sky in this image from ESO Photo Ambassador Fred Kamphues, on September 2, 2016. The lasers are a key part of the adaptive optics system on the VLT. Adaptive optics allows astronomers to drastically reduce the atmospheric distortion present at even the best sites in the world for astronomy, including Paranal in Chile, the home of the VLT. (Photo by F. Kamphues/ESO)

A girl plays on a pile of discarded flowers outside a market, the day after the Diwali celebrations in Mumbai, India October 31, 2016. (Photo by Shailesh Andrade/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.