Neutral Countries in World War 1: Who Stayed Out and Why

Seven European states stayed completely out of the fighting from August 1914 to November 1918: Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Liechtenstein. Outside Europe, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Afghanistan and Ethiopia also held their neutrality to the end. Everyone else either fought from the first weeks or sold their neutrality once the price was right: Italy entered on 23 May 1915, Bulgaria in October 1915, Romania on 27 August 1916, the United States on 6 April 1917 and Greece in June 1917.

This article is for Frontkrieg players and anyone interested in World War 1. It explains why neutrality was a strategy rather than passivity, what it actually cost, and how the same logic plays out on the map in a grand strategy game.

Which countries did not participate in World War 1

More than 30 states were drawn into the war in some form, and roughly 70 million men were mobilised. Against that background the neutral bloc was small but highly visible.

European neutrals for the whole war:

• Switzerland - armed neutrality plus diplomatic usefulness.
• Spain - neutrality held by a deeply divided society.
• The Netherlands - neutrality directly on the line of the German advance.
• Denmark, Norway and Sweden - a Scandinavian bloc caught between the British fleet and German trade.
• Liechtenstein - a state with no army since 1868.

Outside Europe most of Latin America stayed out, including Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela and Colombia, along with Afghanistan and Ethiopia. Persia was formally neutral, yet foreign armies marched across it anyway: neutrality without the force to back it simply did not hold.

Why Switzerland stayed neutral in WW1

Swiss neutrality rested on mobilisation, not on declarations. In August 1914 the country put roughly 220,000 soldiers in the field and kept its army on the borders for four years. The message was blunt: forcing a route through the Alps would cost more than going around.

The second pillar was usefulness to both sides. The International Prisoners-of-War Agency in Geneva compiled around 7 million index cards and gave families a chance to learn what had happened to missing relatives. A neutral country that carries mail, prisoner exchanges and back-channel talks is worth more intact than conquered.

Internally it was harder. German-speaking and French-speaking Switzerland leaned towards opposite blocs, and a diplomatic scandal in 1917 over an attempted mediation with Berlin cost a member of the Federal Council his seat.

Why Spain remained neutral, and how it named the 1918 flu

Spain came out of the 1898 war against the United States weakened, and neither its army nor its fleet was ready for a European conflict. The country was split: conservatives and part of the officer corps leaned German, liberals and the intelligentsia leaned towards the Entente. Either choice risked an internal explosion, so Madrid chose neutrality and profit.

Spanish factories and mines supplied both blocs, exports surged, and domestic prices surged with them. German submarines sank Spanish merchant ships, and still the country did not enter the war. King Alfonso XIII set up a prisoner-of-war bureau that processed roughly 140,000 requests from families across Europe.

Neutrality is also why the 1918 pandemic got its name. In the belligerent states military censorship muted reports of the disease, while the Spanish press covered it freely, so the world assumed the outbreak had started there. There is more on that in the piece on World War 1 medicine and the 1918 flu.

The Netherlands and Scandinavia: neutrality under blockade

The Netherlands sat right next to the front. In the autumn of 1914 the country took in around a million Belgian refugees, of whom roughly a hundred thousand stayed until the end of the war. To seal the border, the German authorities strung an electrified wire roughly 200 kilometres long along the Belgian-Dutch frontier. Estimates of the death toll range from several hundred to several thousand people.

Scandinavia paid at sea. Norway never fired a shot, yet lost about half of its merchant fleet and some 2,000 sailors, proportionally one of the heaviest maritime losses of the war. Denmark mined its straits at Berlin's request and in 1917 sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for 25 million dollars in gold. Sweden traded iron ore with Germany while balancing under pressure from the Royal Navy.

The British naval blockade turned neutral shipping into a war of its own: cargo licences, quotas and port inspections. How the fleets closed the sea lanes is covered in the article on the Battle of Jutland and the naval blockade.

Neutrality as a bargaining chip: Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece

For several countries, neutrality in 1914 was an opening position rather than a principle. Italy, formally allied to Germany and Austria-Hungary, declared neutrality in August 1914, listened to offers from both blocs, signed the Treaty of London with the Entente in April 1915 and declared war on Vienna on 23 May. How that turned out is laid out in the article on the Italian Front.

Bulgaria waited until October 1915 and joined the Central Powers expecting Macedonia. Romania bargained for two years, joined the Entente on 27 August 1916 and lost Bucharest within months. Greece split between its king and its prime minister and only entered officially in June 1917.

The lesson is consistent: neutrality is an asset for as long as both sides need you. The moment you sell it for territory, you become an ordinary belligerent with all the bills attached.

When neutrality ends: the United States in 1917

The most expensive exit from neutrality was the American one. For almost three years the United States profited from supplying the Entente while staying formally outside the alliances. Unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram broke that balance, and on 6 April 1917 Washington declared war on Germany. The full chain of events is in the article on why the US entered World War 1.

With the American army came a reserve of manpower and industry the Central Powers had no answer to. A neutral state that joins late arrives fresh, and that is what decides wars.

How neutrality works in Frontkrieg

On a Frontkrieg map of 4,800 provinces, up to 500 live players and 70 AI nations, neutrality stops being an abstraction and turns into a resource calculation.

• Neutral provinces belong to nobody and sit at around 50 morale, so they are easier to take than enemy ground. The moment a province changes hands, however, its morale drops to roughly 25 and needs time to recover.
• Moving through foreign ground costs tempo. On your own land an army moves at full speed, through allied territory with right of way at around 70 percent, and through enemy land at only 35. That is why declaring war, making peace and granting right of way often matter more than one good battle.
• Province morale falls by roughly 8 points for every step away from your capital, so grabbing distant land for its own sake quickly turns an empire into a liability.
• The neutral oil island of Bergen follows the exact logic of 1914: a resource everyone needs and nobody owns starts wars faster than any ideology.
• Victory requires control of 60 percent of the provinces, so sitting the match out is not an option. Here neutrality is a tempo tool, not a way to win.

The historical playbook still works in game: keep the peace with a strong neighbour while you build your economy, sell right of way at a high price, and enter the big war when your army is fresh and everyone else is worn down. You can test it in a new match, which starts every day.

Frequently asked questions

What countries did not participate in World War 1?

Among the major European states, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway and Sweden stayed out. None of them was drawn into combat across the four years of war, although all of them took economic losses and kept their armies mobilised.

Why did Switzerland stay neutral in WW1?

Because of geography, an army and usefulness to both blocs. Alpine defences made invasion expensive, 220,000 mobilised soldiers backed the declaration with force, and Geneva hosted humanitarian work and quiet diplomacy that suited the Entente and the Central Powers alike.

Did neutral countries actually profit from World War 1?

Partly. Exports from Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands rose sharply, but so did domestic prices, while the naval blockade and submarine warfare destroyed their merchant shipping. Norway lost about half its merchant fleet and some 2,000 sailors without firing a shot.

Which country left World War 1 first?

Russia. After the 1917 revolution the Bolshevik government agreed an armistice and signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918, ending its part in the fighting. That was an exit from the war rather than a return to neutrality: the terms were dictated by the side winning on that front.

Conclusion

The neutral countries of World War 1 were not standing outside history, they were playing a different game. Switzerland bought quiet with mobilisation, Spain bought it with trade, Scandinavia paid in merchant ships, and Italy, Romania and Bulgaria traded their neutrality away along with thousands of lives. Neutrality holds exactly as long as both sides need you and you can defend your own border.

To test that logic yourself, join a match: a new Frontkrieg game starts every day, it is free and there is no pay-to-win. More history and mechanics breakdowns are in the blog, including the article on why World War 1 started.

Source: World War I - Wikipedia.