The World After 1918: Unfinished Peace and New Grievances

This lesson examines the international order that emerged after World War I and explains why the peace settlement of 1919 failed to produce lasting stability. Rather than treating World War II as inevitable, it shows how unresolved disputes, economic strain, weakened empires, and competing national grievances created conditions in which authoritarian and expansionist movements could gain support.

Students will focus on the Treaty of Versailles, the wider Paris peace settlement, the League of Nations, postwar border changes, reparations, minority issues, and the politics of resentment in Germany, Italy, Japan, and other states. The lesson sets up later lessons on fascism, appeasement, Japanese militarism, and the road to war without trying to cover those developments in full.