What Causes an Arms Race

An arms race occurs when two or more countries increase the size and quality of military resources to gain military and political superiority over one another.

What were the causes and effects of the arms race?

This arms race is often cited as one of the causes of World War I. … The United States’ use of nuclear weapons to end World War II led to a determined and soon successful effort by the Soviet Union to acquire such weapons, followed by a long-running nuclear arms race between the two superpowers.

What was the arms race and how did it begin?

When did the arms race start? A. It started in 1945, when the United States exploded its first atomic bomb on July 16 in Alamogordo, N.M., after a massive research campaign known as the Manhattan Project. The successful test of the bomb led to its use on two Japanese cities in August 1945, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.