Residents of the Korean port of Inchon surrender to American troops. (Photo by Bert Hardy/Getty Images). 1950

Musafir, a pet monkey, eats sweets on a pavement in Kolkata, India, June 9, 2016. (Photo by Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters)

These men are chased by the defiant elephants on May 4, 2013. Taken by Biplab Hazra in Bishnupur, India, the images show the extreme lengths the inhabitants of the town go to to deter elephants from damaging their crops and property. Elephants encroaching out of their habitats is an increasingly common occurrence with deforestation in much of India. (Photo by Biplab Hazra/Caters News Agency)

Lewis McKay, two, from East Kilbride, tries out the drums at the 2024 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow. on August 16, 2024 Some 204 bands, representing 13 nations and including 9,000 musicians, are competing over two days. (Photo by Wattie Cheung/The Times)

Girls sits on a bench during summer at the Central Park in New York, United States, 2011. (Photo by An Rong Xu)

Tong Jieping, 44-year-old mentally disabled patient, is chained by his foot inside his room, in Qunxing village of Wangjiang county, Anhui province, China, July 14, 2015. Tong was diagnosed mentally ill when he was in his 20s. His parents, both in their 70s, could not afford the medical treatments so they had to lock him up in chains to prevent him from running away, according to Tong's family. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

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.

Two dummy tanks being pushed along a road by German soldiers. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images). Circa 1925