“NASA's Mars rover Opportunity just celebrated its ninth anniversary on Mars – a mission that was originally meant to last just 90 days...” – The Atlantic. Photo: NASA's rover Opportunity visits Victoria Crater, viewed from orbit by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in october of 2006. Opportunity is a small dot on the crater's lip, at top right. Opportunity first reached the crater's rim on September 27, 2006. (Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona via The Atlantic)

Attendees look at Volkswagen's BUDD-e, a long distance electric vehicle, displayed during a press event at CES 2016 at The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas on January 5, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. CES, the world's largest annual consumer technology trade show, runs from January 6-9 and is expected to feature 3,600 exhibitors showing off their latest products and services to more than 150,000 attendees. (Photo by David Becker/Getty Images)

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.

The Lumix GX1 single lens reflex (SLR) camera with 14-42 mm powerzoom lens is displayed at the Panasonic booth at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center January 10, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The new camera comes with an external viewfinder and flash and an ISO up to 12,800. The camera as shown sells for USD 949; the camera body alone is USD 799. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

Indian folk dancers display ornaments during a break while participating in the first night of Navratri in Gandhinagar, some 30 km from Ahmedabad, on October 13, 2015. Navratri festivities, or Dance Festival of Nine Nights, takes place between October 13-21. (Photo by Sam Panthaky/AFP Photo)

Two cocks are trained for a fight in a village in Nakhon Sawan province, Thailand January 10, 2017. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

Relatives of the crashed AirAsia plane passengers pray at Juanda Airport, in Surabaya, Indonesia, 31 December 2014. Indonesian rescuers retrieved three more bodies from the sea on 31 December but the search to recover more victims from the AirAsia plane crash was hampered by bad weather, the recue chief said. AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 crashed into the Java Sea on 28 December, about halfway through a two-hour flight between Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, and Singapore. (Photo by Made Nagi/EPA)

Chinese Kazakh eagle hunters sit on horseback as they travel to a local competition on January 29, 2015 in the mountains of Qinghe County, Xinjiang, northwestern China. The festival, organised by the local hunting community, is part of an effort to promote and grow traditional hunting practices for new generations in the mountainous region of western China that borders Kazakhstan, Russia and Mongolia. The training and handling of the large birds of prey follows a strict set of ancient rules that Kazakh eagle hunters are preserving for future generations. (Photo by Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)