The correct answer is "Historical patterns are identified across times, places, ideas, institutions, cultures, people and events."
While "issues" and "problems" could be considered tentative answers they are not correct. The study of history and geography, specially in a scientific manner as stated by Karl Marx, allows for the identification of historical patterns that allows us to explain how the events from the past led to our current situation, learning how to relate cause and effect in historical events and their consequences.