Why didn’t Ireland join WW2?

[It's Perro Sanxe wot won it]

Because they - with the exception of a few minor incidents - weren't attacked, had nothing to potentially gain by doing so (&, indeed, saw a potential short-term gain of Irish reunification in the event of an Axis win, though the long-term pain that would obviously arise from an Axis win is another matter), & still hated the British to such an extent that they certainly weren't all that inclined to help them out in such a significant fashion.

They did nominally work with them a bit towards the end. Kind of like Spain on the Axis side.

Hitler, from what I understand, tried to get Franco to enter the war on the Axis side, intending to use Spain as a springboard from which to invade and seize Gibraltar, which was a lifeline of the British Empire and would have cut off British access to the Mediterranean and the vitally important Suez Canal. Franco, however, resisted his pleas, and a conference between them was a failure. Consequently, Spain remained neutral throughout World War II.

I also read somewhere that the Nazis had contingency plans to invade Switzerland, which were obviously never acted upon. Moreover, they occupied Norway so as to secure control of ores imports from Sweden, which were vital to the German war effort.

Franco had completely different goals than Hitler and was more of a Catholic ultra conservative with his goals mostly set on “make Spain great again”.  The Blue Division did exist which was an pro axis group of volunteer solders.

Franco certainly had an ideological affinity with the Axis powers, especially during the early stages of his regime; when establishing fascism was actually his stated goal. Of course, being an astute opportunist who, above all, sought to consolidate his position as undisputed Caudillo of Spain; he quickly changed the script once it became clear that Hitler would lose the war, gradually pivoting towards hardline technocratic social conservatism accompanied by staunch anti-communism.

That opportunism is why he didn’t join it in the first place. He intentionally put outlandish conditions to a Spanish entry in 1940 because he wanted to bid his time to make sure that he would on the winning side. The pitiful state post-civil war Spain was in also played a big role; but again, it was mainly Franco being extremely cautious, exactly as he was in 1936 when he dithered until the very end on whether to support the military conspiracy that would later bring him to power.

In the end, caution served him very well, considering he ruled Spain for 40 years and died an old man, surrounded by his loved ones; unlike Hitler and Mussolini, who both suffered ignominious fates along their short-lived regimes.

[lfromnj]

I don't know, why didn't Spain join the war on the side of the Axis? There's no point in getting dragged into someone else's war if you don't have to, especially one as destructive as WW2.

Spain had just gone through a brutal civil war and didn’t have the ability to, if I remember correctly.

Another factor was unlike the clean Wehrmacht which is a total myth, the German intelligence service was actually headed by a true clean dude named Wilhem Canaris. Canaris was anti Nazi  after only a few years of Nazi rule and one of his given tasks was to negotiate with Franco to join the war. Instead he did the opposite . Its so sad the brutal Nazi Romney is romanticized ala Lost cause style but Canaris gets no recognition .

Extra mention: Canaris wasn't completely clean , he did create the Star of David in 1936. However he still opposed later war crimes and worked to actually prevent massacres.

[Samof94]

I don't know, why didn't Spain join the war on the side of the Axis? There's no point in getting dragged into someone else's war if you don't have to, especially one as destructive as WW2.

Spain had just gone through a brutal civil war and didn’t have the ability to, if I remember correctly.

Another factor was unlike the clean Wehrmacht which is a total myth, the German intelligence service was actually headed by a true clean dude named Wilhem Canaris. Canaris was anti Nazi  after only a few years of Nazi rule and one of his given tasks was to negotiate with Franco to join the war. Instead he did the opposite . Its so sad the brutal Nazi Romney is romanticized ala Lost cause style but Canaris gets no recognition .

Extra mention: Canaris wasn't completely clean , he did create the Star of David in 1936. However he still opposed later war crimes and worked to actually prevent massacres.

Rommel worked Jewish slaves to death.  That guy seems hardly like a saint but does even like the kind of tradition a Gorbachev-esque(basically a moderate pro reconciliation figure) figure might have drawn on had the Nazis lasted decades.

[lfromnj]

I don't know, why didn't Spain join the war on the side of the Axis? There's no point in getting dragged into someone else's war if you don't have to, especially one as destructive as WW2.

Spain had just gone through a brutal civil war and didn’t have the ability to, if I remember correctly.

Another factor was unlike the clean Wehrmacht which is a total myth, the German intelligence service was actually headed by a true clean dude named Wilhem Canaris. Canaris was anti Nazi  after only a few years of Nazi rule and one of his given tasks was to negotiate with Franco to join the war. Instead he did the opposite . Its so sad the brutal Nazi Romney is romanticized ala Lost cause style but Canaris gets no recognition .

Extra mention: Canaris wasn't completely clean , he did create the Star of David in 1936. However he still opposed later war crimes and worked to actually prevent massacres.

Rommel worked Jewish slaves to death.  That guy seems hardly like a saint but does even like the kind of tradition a Gorbachev-esque(basically a moderate pro reconciliation figure) figure might have drawn on had the Nazis lasted decades.

I have never defended Rommel,he was a clear war criminal and was an ardent Nazi.

[Samof94]

I don't know, why didn't Spain join the war on the side of the Axis? There's no point in getting dragged into someone else's war if you don't have to, especially one as destructive as WW2.

Spain had just gone through a brutal civil war and didn’t have the ability to, if I remember correctly.

Another factor was unlike the clean Wehrmacht which is a total myth, the German intelligence service was actually headed by a true clean dude named Wilhem Canaris. Canaris was anti Nazi  after only a few years of Nazi rule and one of his given tasks was to negotiate with Franco to join the war. Instead he did the opposite . Its so sad the brutal Nazi Romney is romanticized ala Lost cause style but Canaris gets no recognition .

Extra mention: Canaris wasn't completely clean , he did create the Star of David in 1936. However he still opposed later war crimes and worked to actually prevent massacres.

Rommel worked Jewish slaves to death.  That guy seems hardly like a saint but does even like the kind of tradition a Gorbachev-esque(basically a moderate pro reconciliation figure) figure might have drawn on had the Nazis lasted decades.

I have never defended Rommel,he was a clear war criminal and was an ardent Nazi.

True. Wehraboos are a problem on the internet though.

[LBJer]

I don't know, why didn't Spain join the war on the side of the Axis? There's no point in getting dragged into someone else's war if you don't have to, especially one as destructive as WW2.

Spain had just gone through a brutal civil war and didn’t have the ability to, if I remember correctly.

Another factor was unlike the clean Wehrmacht which is a total myth, the German intelligence service was actually headed by a true clean dude named Wilhem Canaris. Canaris was anti Nazi  after only a few years of Nazi rule and one of his given tasks was to negotiate with Franco to join the war. Instead he did the opposite . Its so sad the brutal Nazi Romney is romanticized ala Lost cause style but Canaris gets no recognition .

Extra mention: Canaris wasn't completely clean , he did create the Star of David in 1936. However he still opposed later war crimes and worked to actually prevent massacres.

Rommel worked Jewish slaves to death.  That guy seems hardly like a saint but does even like the kind of tradition a Gorbachev-esque(basically a moderate pro reconciliation figure) figure might have drawn on had the Nazis lasted decades.

I have never defended Rommel,he was a clear war criminal and was an ardent Nazi.

From what I have read, both of those claims are very much in dispute.