Neutral powers during World War II
Allies after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Neutral countries
The neutral powers were countries that remained
participated in World War II
.
During World War II, the neutral powers took no official side, hoping to avoid attack. However, Portugal, Sweden, and Switzerland all helped the
Axis, supplying them with its own voluntary brigade, the Blue Division. Ireland generally favoured the Allied side, as with the United States. The United States remained officially neutral until 8 December 1941, a day following the attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor
.
The Lateran Treaty between Italy and the Holy See, signed in 1929, required that the Pope maintain "perpetual neutrality in international relations". Accordingly, Vatican City was officially neutral throughout the war.
Several countries suffered invasions despite their efforts to be neutral. These included
Italo-Greek War began on 28 October 1940 and Yugoslavia was invaded in April 1941. Iran was also attacked and occupied
by Britain and the Soviet Union in August 1941 and later declared war on Nazi Germany.
See also the histories of Afghanistan, Andorra, Guatemala, Liechtenstein, Saudi Arabia and Yemen during this period.
By country
Europe
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania
Estonia, 
Latvia, and 
Lithuania – The Baltic states of Estonia,[3] Latvia,[4] and Lithuania,[5] jointly declared their neutrality on 18 November 1938, in Riga, at the Conference of Baltic Foreign Ministers with their respective parliaments passing neutrality laws later that year. Despite that, all of them were occupied twice by the Soviet Union and once by Nazi Germany.
Iceland
Ireland
Ireland – The policy of Irish neutrality during World War II was adopted by the Oireachtas (Irish Parliament) at the instigation of Éamon de Valera, the Taoiseach (head of government) upon the outbreak of hostilities in Europe. It was maintained throughout the conflict, in spite of several German air raids and attacks on Ireland's shipping fleet by the Axis. De Valera refrained from joining either side, although he generally favored and aided the Allied powers by allowing access to their naval repair yards.
Portugal
Portugal – Portugal was officially neutral during World War II. However, it maintained a close relationship with the UK, due to the alliance it had for the last six hundred years, which is the longest lasting military alliance in history. The Estado Novo sought neutrality in order to keep Spain neutral and prevent it from joining the Axis. Portugal allowed the United States to use a secret military base at Santa Maria Airport in the Azores through a military agreement signed on 28 November 1944. This violated its neutrality and rendered Portugal as a non-belligerent on the Allied side.
Colonies of Portugal:
- Angola
- Cape Verde
- Portuguese Guinea
- Portuguese India
- Macau
- Mozambique
- São Tomé and Príncipe
- Portuguese Timor (Occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945)
Spain
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Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer was highly influential in the government.[6] However, meetings with German officials, including the Hendaye meeting between Franco and Hitleron 23 October 1940, did not bring formal entry of Spain into the war.
- During most of the war, Spain had been a key provider of strategic tungsten ore to Nazi Germany. Amid heavy Allied diplomatic and economic pressure, Spain signed a secret deal with the United States and United Kingdom on 2 May 1944 to drastically limit tungsten exports to Germany and expel German spies from Spanish soil.[9]
Sweden
Swedish iron-ore mining during World War IIhelped the German war effort. Sweden had disarmed after World War I and was in no position to resist German threats militarily by 1940.
- In 1943, the Swedish Armed Forces were much improved, and all such deals with Germany were terminated. Hitler considered invading Sweden, but when Göring protested, Hitler dropped the plan. The Swedish SKF company supplied the majority of ball-bearings used in Germany and was also important to Allied aircraft production.[10]
- Swedish Intelligence cracked the German Geheimschreibercipher and shared decrypted information with the Allies. Stalin was informed well in advance of Hitler's planned invasion of the Soviet Union but chose not to believe the information.
- Danish resistance worked with Sweden to carry out the 1943 rescue of the Danish Jews by shipping them to Sweden. During the Liberation of Finnmark, Sweden sent Norwegian "police" troops over the border to link up with Allied forces. At the end of the war, Sweden was preparing to join the Allied invasion of Norway and Denmark if the occupying Wehrmacht forces rejected a general armistice.
Switzerland
accidentally bombed by both Axis and Allied aircraft. The Axis did have plans for an invasion of Switzerland, but Switzerland had formed complex fortificationsand amassed thousands of soldiers in the mountains to thwart any Axis invasion.
Turkey
Greece, Turkey signed a treaty of friendship with Germany. Winston Churchill and his military staff met the Turkish president on 30 January 1943 in the Adana Conference, although Turkey did not then change its position.- Turkey was an important producer of chromite, a strategic material for metallurgy to which Germany had limited access. The Germans wanted it, and the Allies wanted to prevent them from getting it. So, chromite was the key issue in Turkey's negotiations with both sides. Turkey would backpedal on its agreement to supply Nazi Germany with chromite. After instead selling it to the rival nations the United States and the United Kingdom after the two allied nations agreed to also purchase dried fruit and tobacco from Turkey as well.[11] Turkey halted its sales to Germany in April 1944 and broke off relations in August. In February 1945, after the Allies made its invitation to the inaugural meeting of the United Nations (along with the invitations of several other nations) conditional on full belligerency, Turkey declared war on the Axis powers, but no Turkish troops ever saw combat.
Microstates
Andorra
Andorra remained neutral throughout World War II.
Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein remained neutral throughout World War II.
Monaco
San Marino
San Marino was briefly occupied by Germany on 17–20 September 1944. The occupation led the microstate to declare war on Germany on 21 September 1944.
Vatican City
Asia
Afghanistan
Afghanistan remained neutral throughout World War II.
Bhutan
Bhutan remained neutral throughout World War II.
Iran
Iran was initially neutral but was occupied by the Allies (see Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran). It later declared war on Germany in 1943.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia declared war on Germany on 28 February 1945 and Japan on 1 April 1945, but no military actions resulted from the declaration.
Tibet
Tibet remained neutral throughout World War II. While de facto independent and under the rule of the Dalai Lama, it was internationally recognized as a regional province of the Republic of China. The Tibetan government received Allied (British and American) military officers in Lhasa in 1943.[13] Following the end of World War II and the defeat of the Nationalists by the Communists led by Mao Zedong in the Chinese Civil War, Tibet was invaded and annexed by China in 1951.
Yemen
Yemen remained neutral throughout World War II.
Americas
Argentina
United States
United States – The United States remained neutral at the outbreak of World War II in compliance with the Neutrality Act of 1936 despite favoring the Allied side. However, the sudden defeat of France by Nazi Germany in the spring of 1940 led the country to significantly expand its armed forces through the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. On 29 December of that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared that the United States was to be the "Arsenal of Democracy" for the Allies by giving them supplies while the country remained neutral. The U.S. remained neutral until 8 December 1941, when it declared war on Japan in response to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the previous day.
Conclusion
Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland held to the concept of
Neutral states is Convention V of The Hague Respecting the Rights and Duties of Neutral Powers and Persons in Case of War on Land (1907). It is important to note that a neutral country takes no side in a war between other parties, and in return hopes to avoid being attacked by either of them. A neutralist policy aims at neutrality in case of an armed conflict that could involve the party in question. A neutralist is an advocate of neutrality in international affairs. The concept of neutrality in conflicts is distinct from non-alignment, i.e., the willful desistance from military alliances
in order to preserve neutrality in case of war, and perhaps with the hope of preventing a war altogether.
In a study of Spain, Switzerland, and Sweden during the Second World War, Eric Golson found that they engaged in economic realpolitik, as they traded with both the Axis and the Allied Powers.[18]
See also
- Participants in World War II
- Allies of World War II
- Axis powers
- Declarations of war during World War II
- Latin America during World War II
- Neutral country
References
- ^ "The Countries That Remained Neutral In WWII". WorldAtlas. 4 July 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
- ^ "Neutral Countries in World War II". worldpopulationreview.com. Retrieved 2 November 2022.
- ^ Estonian Neutrality Law of December 1st, 1938
- ^ Neiburgs, Uldis. "Soviet occupation". Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs. Retrieved 17 December 2017.
- ISBN 978-9042027626.
- JSTOR 41325295.
- ^ Egido León 2005, p. 116.
- ^ Egido León 2005, p. 122.
- ^ Moradiellos, Enrique (2016). "España y la segunda guerra mundial, 1939-1945: entre resignaciones neutralistas y tentaciones beligerantes" (PDF). In Carlos Navajas Zubeldia & Diego Iturriaga Barco (ed.). Siglo. Actas del V Congreso Internacional de Historia de Nuestro Tiempo. Logroño: Universidad de la Rioja. pp. 72–73.
- ^ Did Swedish Ball Bearings Keep the Second World War Going? Re‐evaluating Neutral Sweden’s Role
- US State Department, pp. 6-8
- ^ Jan Romein (1962). The Asian Century: A History of Modern Nationalism in Asia. University of California Press. p. 382.
- ^ "Inside Tibet". National Archives and Records Administration via Youtube. 1943. Archived from the original on 15 December 2021. Retrieved 12 July 2010.
- ^ Allén Lascano, Luís C. (1977). Argentina y la gran guerra, Cuaderno 12. «La Soberanía», Todo es Historia, Buenos Aires
- ^ a b Carlos Escudé: Un enigma: la "irracionalidad" argentina frente a la Segunda Guerra Mundial, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de América Latina y el Caribe, Vol. 6 Nº 2, jul-dic 1995, Universidad de Tel Aviv
- ^ ISBN 950-581-399-6
- ^ "Wings of Thunder – Wartime RAF Veterans Flying in From Argentina". PR Newswire. 6 April 2005. Retrieved 8 January 2008.
- ISBN 9789811016042.
- Karsh, E. "Neutrality and Small States." 1989.
- Gabriel, J. M. "The American Conception of Neutrality After 1941." 1989.