History can never really repeat itself, because this situation has been proved impossible in philosophy. As Heraclitus famously said, "One cannot walk into the same river twice", this famous saying means that the water in the river is constantly flowing. This time you stepped into the river and the water ran away. Next time you step into the river, new water will flow. The river keeps flowing, so you can't step into the same river. Heraclitus' famous saying shows that objective things are always moving. Such a changing and developing truth. Engels once commented: "This primitive, simple but essentially correct world view is the world view of ancient Greek philosophy, and it was clearly expressed by Heraclitus for the first time: everything exists, but it does not exist, because everything is fluid, constantly changing, constantly producing and disappearing." Heraclitus also believes that everything is transformed into each other. Cold becomes hot, hot becomes cold, wet becomes dry, and dry becomes wet. He also clearly asserted: "We didn't go down the same river. We exist and don't exist. "
There is a historical theory (Marx's historical materialism) that history is spiraling up. As a supporter of this theory, I think what you described should be attributed to your narrow perspective on history. If history is a rising spiral, then you can only stand at the top of history and look down, and you will see a circle that keeps returning to the original point and repeating. But as long as you move your perspective down to the other side of this spiral, you will see the trajectory of history moving.
For example, according to the classic view of history, the history of China seems to have been repeating the cycle of "one rule and one chaos". For example, the Qin and Han Dynasties were destroyed by peasant uprisings and warlords, but in fact, although the demise of the Qin Empire began with peasant uprisings, it was actually destroyed by the descendants of six big noble who had not yet fully digested it, and the demise of the Han Empire was also destroyed by peasant uprisings, but it was mainly destroyed by the new separatist forces differentiated within the regime. The demise of almost all dynasties began with the peasant uprising, but it was the new social strata produced in each era that finally gave a fatal blow, which is the best example of the so-called spiral historical trajectory.