This image provided by NASA shows parts of Europe and Africa very easily recognizable in this night time image shot by one of the Expedition 25 crew members aboard the International Space Station flying 220 miles above Earth on Thursday October 28, 2010. The view “looks” northward over Sicily and the “boot” of Italy, with the Mediterranean Sea representing most of the visible water in the view and the Adriatic Sea to the right of center. Tunisia is partially visible at left. Part of a docked Russian spacecraft and other components of the ISS are in the foreground. (Photo by AP Photo/NASA)

American actress Anne Hathaway is seen at a film set for the AppleTV+ series, “WeCrashed” on June 11, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Pacific Coast News)

Biologist Kelly Martin records her measurements of Electra, a 5 1/2 foot leatherback turtle nesting on the beach behind the Seminole Golf Club course in Juno Beach. Martin uses a red light which is invisible to turtles. (Photo by Greg Lovett/The Palm Beach Post)

荻野目洋子 (Yōko Oginome) – ダンシング・ヒーロー (Dancing Hero (Eat You Up)) New Dance Version

Children play at a beach in Lhoknga, Indonesia's Aceh province, on June 2, 2023. (Photo by Chaideer Mahyuddin/AFP Photo)

A working team appointed by the Archaeological Superintendence of Pompeii performs a Cat scan (Computerized axial tomography) one out of thirty casts of victims of the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD in Pompeii, in Napoli, Italy, 29 September 2015. The project which aims to trace the habits of life, employment and social class of the victims, involves a working team of archeologists, anthropologists, radiologists, dentists and engineers to obtain results from the scan. (Photo by Cesare Abbate/EPA)

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.

Indian Muslim devotees travel in an auto rickshaw during the Urs festival in Ajmer, India, Thursday, April 23, 2015. Thousands of devotees from different parts of India travel to the shrine of Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisht for the annual festival marking the saint's death anniversary. (Photo by Deepak Sharma/AP Photo)