The Classical Era set the scene. It brought us the major civilizations, religions, and trade routes. But, what happens when all of the major world powers collapse? This is the Post-Classical era. The major world powers come from places you might not expect. There are some powers that are similar to the ones before and the ones after (Byzantine, China). But, the major players in the Post-Classical era come from totally backwards places. One sprouts out of a cave in the Arabian desert. The other comes from the base of a mountain on the steppes in Central Asia. I call this era, Muslims & Mongols. That's not everything, but it just about sums up the basics. (Of course, Trade, Migrations, Religion, and Labor are important...) The Post Classical Era is the FIRST era that represents 20% of the test. From here on out, these eras are worth more than the first two.
This quote comes from the now famous Four Freedoms speech, delivered by Roosevelt as the State of the Union address on January 6, 1941. The international context was very negative. Hitler and his Axis allies were winning in Europe. Britain was greatly menaced and the Japanese were gearing up for all-out war in the Pacific and in Asia.
Roosevelt, aware that scientific progress had eliminated the physical advantage of the USA being separated from Europe and Asia by such vast expanses of water had been arming and funding the British for years and had also increased military spending and the Navy in order to keep Japan at bay.
He knew that once Hitler had conquered Europe and Japan had conquered the East, all the populations and resources of these vast reasons would be used to directly attack the USA, which would eventually find itself in numeric inferiority so in order to prevent such a dark future he chose to send weapons, supplies and money to the British.
