Why was Portugal Neutral in World War 2?

Speaking as a Zimbabwean of British descent. All my love to the Portuguese people. A loving, kind and compassionate people who give selflessly and are some of the friendliest people in the world. 💚💚🙏🏻🙏🏻🇿🇼🇿🇼🇬🇧🇬🇧🇵🇹🇵🇹

Fun fact: Portugal is the only country in the world to join WW1 but not WW2

Something else worth talking about is Japan's position when it came to Portuguese neutrality. They didn't care for it one bit when it came to Portuguese Timor. In December 1941, Portuguese Timor was occupied by a small British, Australian and Dutch force to stop a potential Japanese invasion. And said Japanese invasion came in February 1942. During the subsequent fighting, the Japanese suffered heavy casualties, but they were eventually able to contain the Australians. The campaign lasted until 10 February 1943, when the final remaining Australians were evacuated. Many Timorese and European civilians fought with the Allies or provided them with food, shelter and other assistance. Some Timorese continued resistance, but the Japanese took revenge on the Timorese for this, and tens of thousands of Timorese civilians died during the occupation. Though a bit of a different story for Macau. Japan actually respected neutrality there to an extent, and this led to economic prosperity for being the only neutral port in the region. But in August 1943, Japanese troops seized the British steamer Sian in Macau and killed about 20 guards. A month later, they ordered Macau to install Japanese advisors, virtually making Macau a Japanese protectorate. And when the US found out Macau was gonna selling aviation fuel to Japan in 1945, they launched air raids to destroy said fuel. After the Portuguese government protested, The US paid over 20 million dollars to the Portuguese government as compensation in 1950.

Small correction , Salazar had degree and PHD in Law , he was a professor not a simple graduate .

🇬🇧🇵🇹 A bit of history: During WW2, a British Naval Intelligence Division Officer, Ian Fleming, was in Portugal, more specifically in Palácio Estoril. Palácio Estoril was known as a spy nest. It is there that Ian Fleming witnessed the game of spies between Germans, Brits and others. That inspired him for creating the fictional character of James Bond 007* and its first roman "Casino Royal" in 1953. In 1969, “On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was filmed in Portugal. (*Over 100 millions books sold, 27 movies)

You glossed over WW1 being a major reason for Portugal not joining WW2. Portugal's disastrous involvement in WW1 during the 1st Republic suffering many casuslties and embarament hurt big time Salazar was instrumental at keeping Franco neutral to avoid having Germany invade the peninsula

Portugal however did send in troops to France to help them during ww1 , although the battle of La Lys ( that's its name in Portugal) was a disaster for Portugal , 1 men stood out from that battle , Anibal Milhais , or the soldier worth a million men , 1 of most forgotten heroes during ww1, i know this is during ww2 but just a little known fact lol

I find the "neutral" countries in WW2 very interesting. Ireland and Portugal leaned more to the Allies, whereas Sweden, Argentina, Turkey, Switzerland and (especially) Spain leaned towards the Axis for a wide array of pragmatic and ideological reasons.

2 fun facts: 1 - Portuguese volunteers from the Blue Division fought for the axis in the east front against the soviets. 2- The parisian resistance cells had many portuguese fighters some of which took part in the liberation of the city before allied forces arrived from Normandy.

You got it wrong in 09:00 .Salazar didn't led a coup in 1933. The background picture is from the 1926 coup led by the armed forces, where you can see Great War hero general Gomes da Costa (in the horse waving a sword in the air) Salazar was first the Minister of Finances (1928-1932) . In 1933 he demanded more authority and so he became the President of The Minister's Council, a modern Prime Minister, but it wasn't a coup and in 1926 he wasn't part of the coup as he wasn't in the military.

As a Brit, I think very highly of our Portuguese friends, despite their decision to stay out of WW2. 🇬🇧🇵🇹

Fun fact: The exploration of volfram was supervised by English engineers and there were also German technicians who selected the cargos to be sent to Germany. A ridiculous situation.

People always forget the fact that overseas empire was at stake in Africa, in one side, there was direct borders with german colonies, and on the other side a total maritime blockade threat from Britain.

Thank you very much for this outstanding video! I'm very happy that you're taking an interest in Portuguese history. It's always cool to see how the world sees Portugal, puts things into perspective. Antonio Salazar is a particularly challenging figure to understand, though his intentions towards the country's economic growth and overall national improvement were good, the price for his reforms was too high and naturally led to revolt (needless to say, to the opposite side of the political spectrum). I think that this video is a good reminder that Salazar shouldn't be demonized, as he currently is, but rather studied carefully. Portugal did remain neutral and avoided the catastrophe and the economy and national health did improve considerably, after all. Keep up the amazing work and again, thank you very much! VIVA PORTUGAL!

Portugal fun facts: In Porto, they opened a McDonald's in 1995 inside the historic Cafe Imperial, a former coffeeshop that was in the city since the 1930s. It has massive stained-glass windows and chandeliers. On top of that, it has a GIANT bronze eagle at the entrance designed by sculptor Henrique Moreira. Many call it the world's most beautiful McDonald's. Goes to show you there are still locations that resist the minimalistic design changes that many McDonald's locations have made. The Portuguese Empire lasted from 1415 with the conquest of Ceuta (now in Spanish hands) and ended in 1999 when Macau was transferred to China. In the wake of the Reconquista, Portuguese sailors began exploring the coast of Africa and the Atlantic archipelagos in 1418–1419, using recent developments in navigation, cartography, and maritime technology such as the caravel, with the aim of finding a sea route to the source of the lucrative spice trade. They'd eventually go around Africa to reach Asia. Portugal is famous for tarts known as pastel de nata. These were created by many Catholic monks sometime before the 18th century. At the monastery, they used egg whites for starch (laundry and all that), but what to do with the egg yolks? Bake ‘em into stuff, of course! Thus the tastiest custard tart in the world was born. Tempura originated in Portugal! Toward the end of the 16th century, the technique of fritter-cooking with a batter of flour and eggs was acquired in Nagasaki from Portuguese missionaries. It was a way to fulfill the fasting and abstinence rules for Catholics surrounding the quarterly ember days.

So glad, we are spoken about. Were a country that never get the respect we truly deserve, especially with how small we are.

Salazar had also learned from the mistakes of the Republic during WWI. Portugal was involved in the war and it had bad impact in the economy of Portugal (0 compensation for the war efforts), portuguese people didn't understand why portuguese soldiers went to war, so the war had a huge negative impact on portuguese people and on the Republic (which at the same time also decided to give less power to the religion in Portugal while religion has always been really important for portuguese people). Salazar learned a lot of all these mistakes and played well with the neutrality to maintain the country safe, developed the portuguese economy, and avoid possible protests from portuguese people

Fun fact that's actually not that fun: Salazar was a dictator. Me being a Portuguese, old people like my grandpa say that he was a good person, but people like my mom who was born in the 80's say that he wasn't actually that good of a person

Sometimes, remaining neutral turned out to be a big mistake like when Austria did during the Crimean War. But sometimes, remaining neutral like Portugal during the World War II is the best decision like ever.

You know today's a good day when there is a new Knowledgia video!