Switzerland, the Low Countries, and Scandinavia in The World in March 1939

• Main Authors: Wight, Martin, YOST, DAVID S.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressOxford 2023
• Subjects: Indian; Norway; Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192867476.003.0014; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/50826771/oso-9780192867476-chapter-14.pdf

Abstract In 1939 the main neutral European states were Switzerland, the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands) and the Scandinavian countries (here defined as Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden). They were all successful parliamentary democracies; and in their foreign policies, Wight observed, “the elements of prestige and competition for power had perhaps a smaller part than in any other states in the world.” They complemented their traditional reliance on neutrality with efforts to promote collective security and disarmament in the League of Nations. Both approaches failed. For example, “At the military conference of 23 May 1939 Hitler declared that the Dutch and Belgian air bases must be occupied by force: ‘declarations of neutrality must be ignored.’” Small Powers such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal were incapable of defending their colonial holdings. “The disproportion between their weight in the world and their possessions marked them down for attack.” Discussions between Hitler and high-level British officials on colonial matters raised concerns among European neutral states. “The Western neutrals had to trust that Britain, being traditionally more sensitive to disturbances of the balance of power in Africa and the Indian Ocean than in Central Europe, would thenceforward recognize in her policy that the great empires overseas were reciprocally dependent upon the security of the smaller.”