| Abstract |
Introduction. 500 years ago, Magallanes undertook a trip that would end up being, in the hands of Juan Sebastián Elcano, the first round the world. But, surprising as it may seem, not everyone accepts this historical truth. Such is the case of the book 1421: The Year China Discovered the World, published with remarkable success in 2002, and with successive editions and translations. Its author, Gavin Menzies, constructs a story about this alternative fact: A Chinese expedition completed the first globe circumnavigation a century before the Spanish expedition. Methodology. A case study research of Menzies\' book and its impact is proposed. To do this, we will start with the study question: How and why a false story around a historical event is nowadays constructed and disseminated? And how this fake history is counteracted? To do that, we will analyze multiple sources of evidence such as discourses and documentation in online environment. Results. The study underlines that the impact of the book starts right during the beginning of the so-called post-truth era, and it increases coinciding with these propitious moments for the propagation of fake news and fake history. Once analyzed the evidences, it is verified how historical alternative facts like these are created, transmitted, and maintained in time, and how commercials and also propagandistic interests can be behind of something like this. Conclusions. Not even the well-known first round to the world by Magallanes-Elcano is safe from the misinformation in the current era of post-truth. It is therefore important to remember once again the need to teach and spread historical truths in a rigorous, but also attractive and seductive way. At least as much as the fake history usually does. The disruptive stories of pseudohistory and conspiracy theories always will have a huge attraction for a part of the public, a public further increasing nowadays due to the digital ecosystem in which we live. © 2019, University of La Laguna. All rights reserved. |
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