Much of the reason for Spanish reluctance to join the war was due to Spain's reliance on imports from the United States. Spain also was still recovering from its civil war and Franco knew his armed forces would not be able to defend the Canary Islands and Spanish Morocco from a British attack.
Hitler wanted an alliance with both Vichy France and Spain. Since he compromised when they requested stuff from him, neither was happy enough to become Hitler's ally. So basically the Germans didn't invade Spain since he considered them allies, but the allied powers didn't either as Spain was neutral.
The Spanish government maintained a benevolent neutrality policy towards the Entente Powers during the First World War. Liberal and Conservative cabinets decided it was the only position consistent with their country's traditionally friendly relations with Great Britain and France.
In World War I (1914-1918), Spain remained neutral, while Germany and the other Central Powers lost the war against the Triple Entente. This led to the abdication of all German monarchs.
Portugal was a neutral country during World War II (WWII). The government extended favorable trade terms to Great Britain, with which it had a centuries-old treaty, but continued supplying goods and tungsten – an essential material for the arms industry – to Nazi Germany until mid-1944.
Only 14 countries remained officially neutral throughout the entire war. They included Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Turkey, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan as well as the microstates of Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, San Marino and Vatican City.
Ireland did not join the war, but declared neutrality. Indeed the world war, in Ireland, was not referred to as a war at all, but as 'The Emergency'. In staying neutral, despite British and latterly American pleas to join the war, Ireland, under Eamon de Valera, successfully asserted the independence of the new state.
During World War I, Sweden attempted to remain neutral and to assert its right to trade with the belligerent countries. For Great Britain, the blockade was an important weapon, and Sweden's demand to import freely favoured Germany exclusively.
The latest research by the Real Instituto Elcano shows, however, that 44 percent of Germans now think Spain is a weak nation. The study also found that Germans tend to consider Spain a traditional country, although the percentage who think so slipped from 85 percent to 77 percent from 1996 to 2013.
Spain was nominally neutral during World War II, though under General Franco's far-right Nationalist regime it was politically aligned with Nazi Germany. Spain did not actually join the Axis side but it collaborated with the Nazis in many areas.
Italy wanted to gain the territory of Turkey and Africa but they didn't get what they wanted at end of WWI. Also, they were unhappy with the treaty of Versailles, they thought that injustice had been done to them. So it joined the side of Japan and Germany to get its territories back.
The 1940 Nazi invasion plan, Operation Tannenbaum, was not executed, and SS Oberst Hermann Bohme's 1943 memorandum warned that an invasion of Switzerland would be too costly because every man was armed and trained to shoot.
Francoist Spain (Spanish: España franquista), or the Francoist dictatorship (dictadura franquista), was the period of Spanish history between 1939 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title Caudillo. After his death in 1975, Spain transitioned into a democracy.
The previous spring Japan in fact had almost experienced a military coup. As he mulled it over, Hitler envisaged an alliance with Tokyo primarily for what it meant in the struggle against “Jewish” Bolshevism. This was to be a pact emphatically denouncing Marxist revolution.
Germany Fixture
The Soccer Teams Spain and Germany played 7 Games up to today. Among them, Spain won 3 games ( 11 at Total Score, 1 at Home Stadium away), Germany won 1 (4 at Home Stadium, 1 at Total Score away), and drew 3 ( at Total Score, 1 at Home Stadium).
Spain also advanced despite the loss, knocking Germany out of the tournament.
The facts are that Germany is significantly richer than southern Eurozone countries like Spain, Greece and Portugal.
Germany marginally lead the head-to-head with nine wins to Spain's eight with the sides playing out eight draws. Their biggest win over Spain was 4-1 in a friendly in August 2000, but since then Germany have scored just four times in seven meetings while conceding 13.
There are around 120,000 people of German nationality who have moved to Spain. Most of them reside mainly in the Balearic Islands, Cataluña (Barcelona), Canarias (Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and Comunitat Valenciana (Alicante).
After the military invasion of Veracruz in 1914, Mexico did not participate in any military excursion with the United States in World War I. That ensured that Mexican neutrality was the best outcome that the United States could hope for even if it allowed German companies to keep their operations in Mexico open.
At the time of the German attack, Denmark and Norway were neutral. Germany still attacked the countries because it feared that Great Britain and France planned to occupy Norway. With Denmark's access to the Baltic Sea in German hands, Swedish iron ore could be transported undisturbed to Germany.
Since the Great powers had no desire for unrest in Scandinavia, they signed an agreement respecting Norway's neutrality. Still, the political direction was clear: fearing Russian ambition in the north, the sentiment was that Norway should be neutral if war broke out, and rely on help from Great Britain if attacked.
If you ask people to name the victorious Allied Powers in World War II, Mexico isn't usually a name that comes to mind. But after declaring war against the Axis in mid-1942, Mexico did contribute to the Allied victory in important ways.
Scotland at War: A City Transformed
Prepared to defend their country to the last, Edinburgh and its patriotic citizens rallied to support the Allied efforts as the Scottish Command Headquarters during the war.
Finland was aligned with the Germans but was not formally an Axis member. Yet the country was a signatory of the Anti-Comintern Pact. The German troops were primarily stationed in northern Finland. The Finnish Army advanced deep into the Soviet territory in the Continuation War (1941–1944).