A naval arms race is when two or more countries continuously construct warships that are consistently more powerful than warships built by the other country built in the previous years. These races often lead to high tension and near-wars, if not outright conflict.
Examples include:
The South American dreadnought race between Argentina, Brazil and Chile from 1907 to 1914
The World War I naval arms race between several powers, including Germany, England and Russia, culminating in World War I
The World War II naval arms race, when Japan, America and Britain, after the Washington Naval Treaty, attempted to gain power in the Pacific.
The Cold War nuclear arms race between the United States and Russia, which involved both land and naval nuclear expansion.
