Library of Congress - Britain, America, and the Trans-Atlantic Arms Trade 1870-1918

In the decades before the First World War, American and British officials pored over blueprints for new battleships and rifles, trying to decide whose weapons would arm their nations. This project digs through the Library of Congress archives to trace exactly how arms technology and finished products moved between the United States and Great Britain from 1870 to 1918. The research addresses a gap in understanding: historians know that arms manufacturers influenced international relations, but the precise, evolving connection between the two English-speaking powers and their weapons suppliers remains unclear. By examining political, military, and business records from both peacetime and war, the project will extract patterns in how these nations dealt with the armaments sector. If successful, this work will produce a clearer picture of how military-industrial relationships shaped trans-Atlantic diplomacy during a period of rapid technological change. The findings could inform how historians and policymakers understand the dynamics that quietly underpinned international security before the modern era of global arms control. This is fundamental historical research—it will not directly change how weapons are bought or sold today, but it provides the concrete evidence needed to test long-held assumptions about the origins of the modern arms trade.