World War 1 For Dummies

13. neutral countries watch on

Alot of countries watched on as the war broke out
in 1914 most people thought the war would only last a couple of months and the result being a central power victory
Lets look at some of these countries
Usa
Although the usa would get involved much later in the war it still was a player most americans sympathized with the allies as the french helped them in their war for independence
And the british for cutural ties
But most americans had german ancestry
and a-h princess visited america the previous year
Soo president woodrow wilson decided to stay neutral
Spain- spain had been defeated three times in a row in the last wars it had first by the french and then by the moroccans and finally by the Americans
Also the country was internally fractured between liberals monarchists fascists and nationalists
Most spainards supported the allied powers but the government ( mostly the queen) supported the central powers
Norway Denmark and sweden- the Scandinavian countries had always been neutral
Norway had just achieved independence from denmark soo it didn't have any chance to forge alliances
Denmark- even though it was neutral it was basically bullied by germany to let it use its ports and based
Sweden- sweden almost entered the war on the central powers side the king of sweden was the cousin of germanys chancellor
But it didn't on account of the prime minister
The netherlands or holland- the Dutch army was very old fashioned the still had muskets and were using wooden ships
Germany almost invaded to break the british blockade on germany and maybe have a spearhead to launch air bombings on the english homeland
Switzerland- switzerland had
A policy of being neutral its in its constitution