In 1900 the US government owned Springfield armory was tasked with building a new rifle for the infantry. This was to replace the Krag-Jorgensen design which had been shown inferior to the Mausers in the Spanish/American war. So, based on the battle-proven Mauser system's two front locking lugs and the camming action in the closing and opening of the bolt, Springfield entered into negotiations with the Mauser company and finally acquired the rights for the excellent Mauser bolt action for a license payment (no royalties) of USD $200,000 which was quite a sum at the time. Springfield armory also had to pay for the reloading system which was as revolutionary as the action itself. The five-round clip charger made reloading the magazine something that was done in about the same time as one could load just one round at a time in the past.
The Springfield was a copy of the Mauser 1893 (M93) that the Spanish were wielding in the Spanish American war. The M98 arrived later with a few design changes over the M93 to increase bolt strength & safety.
from what I found out, the Kar 98 was around 1935–present. and the M1903 Springfield was 1903–1957, so its 32 years older. but the K98's bolt action was based around the Gewehr 98's Mauser M98 bolt action system, but modified slightly, and from what I can tell that was around Germany 1898-1945. so technically the Springfield is older than the K98's modified bolt action, but not as old as the Mauser M98 bolt action it was based off originally. but I'm not 100% sure on that
