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Originally Posted by joegrundman
Well Spain's position was complicated. They had just had a very bitter and destructive civil war, with the axis supported nationalists defeating the republicans who had communist and democratic support. So a sizeable percentage of Spain's population, including Franco, had very close ties with the axis powers that had been their support and co-fighters.
But if Franco had then thrown in with Germany at that time, it could have reignited the civil war again when he was trying to stabilise and rebuild the country, which i expect is why the most he offered the axis was axis-leaning neutrality.
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Good points. I think another thing Franco would have had to worry about in casting his lot with Hitler were vulnerable overseas Spanish colonies and territories like the Canary Islands or the Spanish Sahara in Africa. I think the British would have quickly seized them like they previously did with Italian Ethiopia and Vichy Madagascar. Like neutral Sweden, which even let German troops cross their country at one point, Spain had to walk a diplomatic tightrope.