Which Neutral Power could have helped the CP in WW1 the most?

[joelwilliamson]

China joined 4 months after the US, so they probably shouldn't be listed as a neutral power.

 

[FasterThanRaito]

Wasn't Portugal allied with Britain from the outset? hardly neutral at least

 

[Hadenial]

Wasn't Portugal allied with Britain from the outset? hardly neutral at least

No actually, Portugal remained neutral, and did not see combat until 1916, when they finally entered the war (under British pressure). Although minor colonial skirmishes in Angola between German and Portuguese forces occurred earlier than this. One could argue that they weren't truly neutral due to their desire to keep the British appeased from the outset, but regardless, their war contribution prior to 1916 was minimal.

 

[Timmy811]

Sweden was the most likely neutral to join and likely would have accelerated the Russian collapse by at least six months. Hard to see the Central Powers losing in that scenario.

We had a pretty long discussion on CP Sweden IIRC.

 

[Richter von Manthofen]

Initial reaction was Sweden, but Spain would have two advantages - the French would Panic by the THREAT of a Spanish Invasion in Southern France (and the Colonial Empire) and IF a land Connection (rhone valley + Southern coast ) could be established the BRitish BLockade would be softened (Not sure if Spains ports and rails would be sufficient to make up for the North Sea Harbours. Spain would also threaten acecss to the med (and have bases for Subs).

 

[Maniakes]

While Spain did have a valuable strategic position, so did Sweden and Norway, and the latter two countries had much more military capability than Spain.

Based on this post from an earlier thread on Sweden entering WW1, a CP Sweden could have contributed 540,000-670,000 soldiers. Norway was probably good for at least 100,000 on top of that and possibly as high as 400,000, based on their 1920 military strength of 120,000 active duty and 280,000 reserve.

According to this, the Spanish army only had about 80,000 soldiers (plus 16,000 officers, although it sounds like a large fraction of officer berths were sinecures) in 1910, with a failed proposal to expand to about 180,000 in 1916.

 

[mlp]

snip

But wouldn't Scandinavia also be harder to defend, with such a large coastline?

 

[Ryan]

But wouldn't Scandinavia also be harder to defend, with such a large coastline?

Norway wouldn't join the CP and the Baltic will become a CP lake.

 

[Richter von Manthofen]

Norway wouldn't join the CP and the Baltic will become a CP lake.

No it would not become a CP lake as Long as Russia has Dreadnoughts in fighting condition. Even if the Baltic fleet is at some point bottled up in Petrograd the RN is capable to sortie into the Baltic at any time - though such a move (if done with heavy forces) could lead to a German Invasion of dDenmark to secure the Access to the Baltic (but maybe a CP Sweden might lead to Denmark reconsidering neutrality)

 

[Arnold d.c]

I chose Spain because the idea of opening a second front in France seems pretty good. You have the French army being split in half trying to fight two fronts.

 

[Albidoom]

I chose Spain because the idea of opening a second front in France seems pretty good. You have the French army being split in half trying to fight two fronts.

But given how near-disastrous the Italian invasion of the french alps in WWII was (at a point where France basically had already lost) I daresay France should be able to stall any Spanish advance at the Pyrenees.
Of course, needing some hundreds of thousand soldiers elsewhere might tip the scales towards the Central Powers, but then again Italy joining the Entente didn't topple the CP immediately either.

 

[Kung Fucious]

But given how near-disastrous the Italian invasion of the french alps in WWII was (at a point where France basically had already lost) I daresay France should be able to stall any Spanish advance at the Pyrenees.
Of course, needing some hundreds of thousand soldiers elsewhere might tip the scales towards the Central Powers, but then again Italy joining the Entente didn't topple the CP immediately either.

A Spain or Italy that's in the CP doesn't necessarily have to attempt an Alpine invasion of France, they just have to marshal forces on the border and threaten an invasion.

 

[NamelesStatistic]

Of those listed i voted for Spain because a hostile Spain would force France to redeploy several divisions south away from the Western Front.

Of course, the USA would be the greatest ally, even without firing a shot they could dramatically harm the UK and France using economic levers.

 

[RamscoopRaider]

Sweden/Norway

Spain is isolated from the CP and has a smaller military than Sweden. Assuming the Entente is willing to cut the Macedonian Front (jokingly referred to as the worlds largest open air prison camp), they can mass the forces to eliminate Spain. Of course that lets the CP throw that much more forces on the Eastern Front, but Salonika/Macedonia always an economy of force sector for the CP anyways (one the British wanted to abandon, but the French insisted, if Southern France is in danger, the British agree)

Sweden/Norway has more troops, and is easier for the CP to reinforce than the entente to attack, being able to base naval forces there would vastly complicate enforcing the blockade, and the added forces can go directly against Russia, rather than only serving as a distraction until they are eliminated

 

[Strategos' Risk]

Which of these neutrals were actually likely to get involved? Italy and Sweden both had historical points where they could have gotten involved. Never heard of how Spain or Norway could have, but I guess the point of this isn't looking at potential PODs, but rather see what more countries would have brought to the table.

There are some other ones according to Wikipedia:

Afghanistan – received a German diplomatic mission trying to convince it to act against the British in India

Principality of Albania – In political chaos since the beginning of the war, the country was occupied by both Central and Allied powers but never declared war on either side

Ethiopia – received a German diplomatic mission trying to convince it to act against Italy, United Kingdom and France in East Africa

Venezuela – Supplied the Allies with oil

Though it does mention that the Netherlands was allied to Great Britain by treaty, and Norway also gave naval assistance to GB.

In reality, however, Norway had been pressured by the United Kingdom to hand over increasingly large parts of its massive merchant fleet to the UK at low rates, as well as to join the trade blockade against Germany. Norwegian merchant marine ships with Norwegian sailors were then required to sail under the British flag and risk being sunk by German submarines. Thus, many Norwegian sailors and ships were lost. Thereafter, the world ranking of the Norwegian merchant marine fell from fourth place to sixth place in the world.

It'd be cool to see them face off against a Central Powers Sweden.

Finally, check THIS OUT

Hindu-German Conspiracy

The conspiracy was drawn up at the beginning of the war, with extensive support from the German Foreign Office, the German consulate in San Francisco, as well as some support from Ottoman Turkey and the Irish republican movement.

Imagine if the Germans did to India, what the Brits did to Arabia. And Ireland is also involved.