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.

“Sniff out the Appenzell Cheese”. Alexander Hunter, 30, of Greenwich, Conn., took this photo in Appenzell, Switzerland, in September 2014. (Photo by Alexander Hunter)

In this March 3, 2015 photo, a group of California sea lions rest on a large bouy in the San Ignacio lagoon, in the Pacific Ocean, near Guerrero Negro, in Mexico's Baja California peninsula. (Photo by Dario Lopez-Mills/AP Photo)

An Egyptian security guard screams at people as medics bring in a stretcher to carry the wounded after the attack which killed President Anwar Sadat, October 6, 1981, as he watched a military parade. (Photo by AP Photo)

In this October 5, 2016 photo a man looks at the work “Not to be Reproduced” by Rene Magritte at the Kunsthalle art gallery in Hamburg, Germany. The exhibition, which runs from Oct. 7, 2016 until Jan. 22, 2017, features more than 150 masterpieces of surrealism from four of the most significant European private collections of the 20th century. (Photo by Daniel Reinhardt/DPA via AP Photo)

A Palestinian throws snow at his wife during a snow storm in West Bank old city of Hebron, January 26, 2016. (Photo by Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)

Soldiers stand guard in Maua square where a cotton candy vendor passes by in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Saturday, July 9, 2016, as security is deployed to get to know the areas they'll be patrolling during the Olympics. Roughly twice the security contingent at the London Olympics will be deployed during the August games in Rio, which are expected to draw thousands of foreigners to a city where armed muggings, stray bullets and turf wars between heavily armed drug gangs are routine. (Photo by Leo Correa/AP Photo)

Icelandic horses play in their paddock at a stud farm in Wehrheim near Frankfurt, Germany, as a mist rolls in on Thursday, August 5, 2021. (Photo by Michael Probst/AP Photo)