This study examines the historical development of trade wars from the mercantilist period onward within a political economy framework, focusing on their renewed prominence on the global agenda in recent years through U.S.- China rivalry. Based on the observation that international trade has historically emerged not from purely economic motivations but primarily from considerations such as national security and the pursuit of strategic and political power, the study argues that trade wars have likewise been shaped as outcomes of similar drivers.

While the colonial logic of the mercantilist period regarded trade as an instrument for acquiring military power, the process of industrialization made the search for raw materials, markets, and competitive advantage the principal triggers of such wars. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the strengthening of the nation-state steered countries toward establishing economic supremacy through the protection and development of national industries, thereby turning trade wars into actions driven by nationalist reflexes. In the twentieth century, the two World Wars and the Great Depression demonstrated how war economies were directly reflected in trade through rising tariff barriers and protectionist policies, while post–Cold War bloc formations and the growing importance of strategic sectors further shaped the trajectory of trade wars. During the neoliberal era, the instruments employed in trade wars took the form of implicit versions of protectionist policies, whereas in the twenty-first century—particularly following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis and China’s integration into global trade—the structure of trade wars has shifted toward a framework centered on global supply chains and technology.

The central argument of the study is that trade wars, in every historical period and under all adopted policy paradigms, constitute systematic forms of conflict shaped by the objectives of protecting national interests, ensuring security, and establishing sovereignty through the use of economic instruments, and that these conflicts are transmitted in cyclical patterns from the past to the present and into the future.