Success or Failure
One of the easiest ways of analyzing a topic is to evaluate and make a determination on whether the topic (revolution, turning point, war or conflict, person, technology, etc.) was a success or failure to the civilization, society, nation, or region it was located.
Some examples might be:
Theme: Nationalism
Success: Nationalism was successful in unifying the Italian speaking people and Italian culture in one country now known as Italy in 1861 by Cavour, Garibaldi, and Mazzini, with Victor Emmanuel II becoming the first King of a united Italy. The event in history is known as the Risorgimento or the resurgence of Italy.
Failure Nationalism caused the break up of Yugoslavia into smaller countries along ethnic and religious lines in the 1990s. The Balkans War was a result of these feelings of nationalism after the fall of communism in the Soviet Union and around Eastern Europe.
Theme: Imperialism
Success: Imperialism was successful in bringing education, a common language, medicine, roads & railroads, and technology to India. These united people and allowed for India to grow as a supplier of natural resources for the Industrial Revolution during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Failure: Imperialism in Africa did not account for tribal boundaries. When the European countries made the Scramble for Africa they did not take into account the relationships of the established African tribes. They drew their maps of the colonies along geographic lines and this left some tribes split between two colonies. After WWI and WWII independence movements formed countries out of the former colonies and still the older tribal boundaries were not followed causing civil wars to this day.
Theme: Change - Political Leaders or Philosophers
Success: Gandhi was successful at illustrating the problems with British Imperialism by his boycott of the British cotton industry and his march to the sea. His promotion of Indian nationalism assisted India in gaining independence shortly after World War II.
Failure: Gandhi's idea of a unified India was a failure since India fractured along religious lines with the Muslim part becoming Pakistan and the Hindu part becoming India. Many people died as a result of the split up of India with masses of people moving from one area to another.