Home > History Fact Finder > War and Conflict: Twentieth Century - Were Any Countries Besides Switzerland Neutral During World War Ii?
War and Conflict: Twentieth Century - Were Any Countries Besides Switzerland Neutral During World War Ii?
Were any countries besides Switzerland neutral during World War II?
Besides Switzerland, a number of countries stated an official position of neutrality (not taking sides) during World War II (1939–45). Switzerland was joined by Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Argentina. Postwar findings suggest that, with the exception of Argentina, the neutrality of these countries was not an absolute policy. For instance, a report released in 1998 by U.S. undersecretary of state Stuart Eizenstat indicated that the Swiss had converted Nazi (abbreviation for National Socialist German Workers' Party) gold stolen from the Jews and other victims of the Nazis to Swiss francs and that Germany had used that money to buy minerals from Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Turkey. The report continued, claiming that Sweden had allowed 250,000 Nazi troops to cross its country in order to reach neighboring Finland, where the Germans...
[The entire page is 315 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
-
European Conflicts
- What was Bloody Sunday?
- Who was Rasputin?
- What was the Bolshevik Revolution?
- What was the Red Terror?
- What was the Spanish Civil War about?
- Who was Generalissimo Francisco Franco?
- What was the fighting in Bosnia about?
- What was the origin of the term "genocide"?
- What is the fighting in Kosovo about?
- What is the "Irish Question"?
- American Conflicts
-
Asian And African Conflicts
- What was the Russo-Japanese War?
- What was the Long March?
- What was the Boxer Rebellion?
- What was the Second Sino-Japanese War?
- Who were the Khmer Rouge?
- What were the killing fields?
- Why was the United States involved in the Korean War?
- Why was the Vietnam War fought?
- Why did many Americans protest U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War?
- What was the issue in the conflict in Rwanda?
-
Worldwide Conflicts
- How did World War I begin?
- What alliances were formed during World War I?
- How did the United States become involved in World War I?
- How did World War I end?
- What did the Lusitania have to do with World War I?
- Who were the Big Four?
- How were European boundaries redrawn as the result of World War I?
- How did the Treaty of Versailles lead to World War II?
- What was Nazism?
- How did World War II begin?
- What countries were called the Allies in World War II?
- What was the Atlantic Charter?
- What happened at Pearl Harbor?
- What is D day?
- Why was the invasion of Normandy a decisive battle?
- What was the Battle of the Bulge?
- What are V-E Day and V-J Day?
- Were any countries besides Switzerland neutral during World War II?
- How did Anne Frank's diaries survive World War II?
- What was the Berlin airlift?
- What is NATO?
- What was the Warsaw Pact?
- What was the arms race?
- What was the Bay of Pigs?
- What was the Cuban Missile Crisis?
- What happened in Grenada?
-
Eastern Conflicts
- When was Israel formed?
- What is the basis of the conflict over the Gaza Strip and the West Bank?
- What were the Camp David accords?
- What is the Wye accord?
- What did U.S. President George Bush mean when he said the United States had to "draw a line in the sand"?
- Why was the Persian Gulf War important?
