During World War I and at the Paris Peace Conference, Britain and France made conflicting promises to Arab and Jewish leaders and to each other about the territories of Middle East. The result was a division of the territory into mandates and the creation of nations and borders that contribute to conflict today.

The leaders of the victorious countries drafted the treaty, which required the losing powers, particularly Germany, to assume responsibility for starting the war, and for paying the victors reparations with large amounts of currency and land. New states were created in Eastern Europe, carved from the territories of the German, Austrian, Ottoman, and Russian empires. The Treaty of Versailles also established the mandate system, which granted many of the Allied Powers, including Japan, administrative governance over former territories and colonies of Germany and the Ottoman Empire.

During World War I and at the Paris Peace Conference, Britain and France made conflicting promises to Arab and Jewish leaders and to each other about the territories of Middle East. The result was a division of the territory into mandates and the creation of nations and borders that contribute to conflict today. The texts and maps in this set support student inquiry into the creation of the modern map of the Middle East.