With
the rise of international conflicts around the world in the 1930s,
Congress passed the Neutrality Acts of 1935, 1936, and 1937 (49 Stat.
1081, 49 Stat. 1152, 50 Stat. 121).These laws required
registration and licensing by a National Munitions Control Board of all
persons trading in munitions and a mandatory embargo on the export of
arms, ammunition, and implements of war, and on loans
and credits to all belligerents or to neutrals for transshipment to
belligerents. An embargo would take effect when the president found a
state of war to exist.
