A military weapon capable of rapid, repetitive shooting had been sought after for close to 900 years. The history of the machine gun is covered in both print and digital forms in this guide.

Overwhelm and repel an attacking force, or serve as an offensive or defensive force multiplier, had been the goal of the development of a military rifle for about 900 years. Early attempts to create what is now known as a machine gun failed to create a completely automatic weapon instead producing unwieldy, semi-reliable guns made up of a collection of single shot barrels mounted on a tripod or gun carriage. Some of these multiple-barreled weapons were shoulder arms or pistols that could be handled in the hand and required a long time to reload. Even though they might be lethal to an assailant, the gunners themselves might be just as vulnerable. These handguns developed into repeating weapons like revolvers, semi-automatic pistols and rifles, and fully automatic sub-machine guns and assault rifles. Those arms are not included in this guide.

During the time of English King Edward III (1312-1377) in the Middle Ages, so-called organ guns or volley guns of various kinds and numbers of barrels were in use until the latter 19th century, when they started to be replaced by the contemporary machine gun. Examples of the Ribaldequin gun from the Middle Ages, popularly known as the "Infernal Machine," the Billinghurst Requa Battery Gun, the Nock Volley Gun, and the Vandenburg Volley Gun were also present.

The modern machine gun was first developed in 1884 by Hiram Maxim (1840-1916), and it was used in wars like the Spanish American War and the Boer War in the late 19th century. It was used in numerous other locations and gained notoriety for being used by European countries in their search for colonies. On October 25, 1893, in what is now Zimbabwe, 3,500 Matabele warriors attacked 700 policemen from the British South Africa Company's Police (BSAP) as British explorers entered their country. This was the first time the Maxim was used in combat. Around 1,500 warriors were killed by five Maxim rifles. A week later, 2,500 soldiers out of 6,000 were killed in another combat, largely because of the employment of the Maxim gun. Other machine guns including the Colt M1895 "Potato Digger" in 1889, the Hotchkiss 1897 and the Skoda M1893 were produced with varying levels of mechanical reliability, and were much less popular than the Maxim Gun.



In the first decades of the 20th century, the Maxim Gun rose to become the norm, experiencing an exponential rise in demand and almost universal use. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1955), the Russian employment of Maxims in the defense of Port Arthur resulted in 6,200 deaths among the roughly 35,000 assaulting Japanese infantrymen. The usage of tens of thousands of Maxim rifles from different manufacturers occurred during World War I (1914–1918). Vickers, Sons & Maxim Company in Great Britain, Spandau Company in Germany, Colt-Vickers in the United States, and Tula Arms Plant in Russia/Soviet Union were the main producers. Maxim guns were being used by the Ukrainian military in 2022 to repel Russian invaders.



Other American inventors of firearms, like John Moses Browning (1855–1926), created renowned weapons like the M1917 Browning.30 caliber machine gun and the M1919, an upgraded model. The M2.50 caliber machine gun, also created by Browning, gained the nickname "Ma Deuce." He also created a portable light machine gun for soldiers. the BAR, or Browning Automatic Rifle. Military weapons created by Browning were in use throughout the 20th Century, and several are still in use today. The famous Lewis Gun, a light machine gun employed by infantry and on aircraft from World War I at least until the end of the Korean War (1950–1953), was created by another American, Isaac Newton Lewis (1858–1911).

American Benjamin B. Hotchkiss (1826-1885) who had moved to France in 1867, and was already well-known for his Gatling-type revolving cannons, designed machine guns for the French Army beginning around 1900. Their use continued through World War II (1939-1945)

The machine gun advanced due to innovation and necessity, and as the second world war broke out in 1939, many new types and advancements to existing weapons were made. The MG-34 and MG-42 were both made in Germany. Many militaries are still using contemporary MG-42 variants today. Nearly all combatants during World War II and beyond used Hotchkiss machine guns and auto-cannons made in the United States, France, Japan, Italy, and Poland. The British Bren Gun, the American Johnson light machine gun, the German FG-42, the Soviet Degtyaryov light machine gun (DP series LMGs), and the DShK 1938 heavy machine gun are some of the other well-known World War II weapons. The unpopular and unreliable Chauchaut light machine gun from World War I was superseded by the French FM 24/29 machine gun machine gun beginning in 1925.

Further machine gun improvements were achieved all over the world as a result of the technological developments made during World War II and the start of the Cold War (1947–1991). Modern variants of the German MG-42 were produced in Austria, Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and Yugoslavia, and also served as the inspiration for other countries' weapons designs, including the American M-60 and the Belgian FN MAG. Russian designs dominated in the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc nations. The most well-known of them were light machine gun-capable adaptations and clones of Mikhail Kalashnikov's (1919–2013) AK-47 assault rifle. The Kalashnikov RPD light machine gun and eventually the RPK light machine gun took the role of the DP family of light machine guns. The PK machine gun was also created by Kalashnikov. Kalashnikov's designs are still in use with the Russian armed forces and many other nations' armed forces, as well as many paramilitary groups.