Why did Germany not invade Sweden in World War 2?

It is always amusing to read these answer about World War 2 related questions, the immaturity of some select few answers here and there clearly shows who spends more time caught up in an imaginary fantasy world than reading thick and proper history books. I will try to address some of the things mentioned in the other answers that are slightly inaccurate or more fantasy than reality. Sometimes it is necessary to deviate from the topic, to provide context of the bigger picture.

Here is my 2 cents: like all of world war 2 there is a microcosm of things to consider. Any single and seemingly simple event can warrant its own thick thesis The shortest and most effectively truncated answer to this question is that it was not necessary or desired The goal of the war for Germany was the invasion of the Soviet Union and the creation of an Eastern European empire. Germany lost its colonies after WW1 and its only alternative to remaining a small and "weak" "race" or nation, was to acquire more territory somewhere, thereby increasing the power and prosperity of the German (and other Germanic) peoples.

A form of indo-European colonialism, if you like, to put Germany on the same level as England, France, Spain and Portugal, who all had acquired vast lands across the globe through warfare and imperialism Thus keeping this primary objective of Germany's war in mind, lazy geeks who like to fantasize about the war, but never bother to take out any proper, researched material from the library will then slightly better understand the war as a whole and the motivations behind some of the other "side quests" as undergone by National Socialist Germany for example: Western Europe was invaded because England and France were at war with Germany. The conquest of the Soviet Union could not commence until Germany had some level of security on its western flank Northern Europe, meaning Denmark and Norway, were invaded for important strategic reasons, one of which was that Scandinavia supplied iron ore. This raw material was obviously critical for the success of any modern war effort.

The allies (Churchill) had as an objective to stop the flow of iron ore (and basically antyhing else for that matter,) to Germany from everywhere possible, including Scandinavia, as well as to get as many European nations involved in the war one way or the other, and on their side, as possible. England then breached Norwegian neutrality by mining some of its waterways and when Germany reacted, Britain launched its own atempted occupation of Norway, which led to the actual German invasion. Germany invaded through Denmark whilst England entered Norway from the north.

Germany won this theatre, the British had to evacuate, and thereby Germany secured its flow of iron ore as well as cut off the Baltic Sea from the British navy, securing shipping routes from Scandinavia (Norway, Denmark and Sweden, Finland actually is not officially considered part of Scandinavia) to various European ports. Thus Germany had achieved its objective by holding only Norway and Denmark. If a world atlas is studied it can be seen that holding Sweden and Finland as well was not necessary Invading a nation is no small task and stretches the resources of the occupying nation enormously.

Bear in mind that, regardless of what you might think of the wartime Germany leadership, they were people of reasonable IQ; there had to be a clear and worth-while return on investment for them to even consider an invasion and/or occupation Please remember that Germany did not intend to invade and take over the WHOLE world, at least not in a physical way, neither was it the plan of even the most zealous and inhumane Nazi leadership to exterminate EVERYONE on the ENTIRE planet apart from the other Germanic/Aryan (northern European white) people. Even entertaining such opinions is for people of sub par intelligence, since it would have been completely impossible. Their ideology entailed that "Aryan white" people were superior, and should be in control of world affairs.

The Aryan people ruled the world anyway, think about it. (England, USA, etc. ) The areas where tremendous ethnic cleansing through forced relocation and killing were supposed to happen were in the territories within European Russia, where the German people were supposed to settle and colonize the land to create a huge German state Swedes were considered as Herrenvolk, (people who were to share in Germany's privileges as new rulers of a new order) so Sweden would only have been invaded and occupied for critical strategic reasons and only for as long as the war required, (like Belgium, Netherlands and the attempted invasion of Britain,) if they had existed, but they did not Lastly, when looking at the war chronologically and not retrospectively, I can't see a reason for powerful pro or anti-German sentiment among Swedes at the time, at least, no sentiment powerful enough to motivate them, had Germany invaded Sweden, to willingly enter into partisan warfare and thus invite its truly horrific consequences, at least not until late in the war and provided that Germany had to extract enormous amounts of life-critical resources to help sustain its then increasingly depleted war effort My sources: The library, especially the libraries of tertiary educational institutions. There are plenty of books dealing specifically with the Northern European theatre.

Wikipedia is NOT sufficient, really, this can't be overstated Brahm van Tonder Answer During the invasion of Scandinavia, Sweden remained neutral; but, because much of their income was generated by exporting iron, they continued to sell it to Nazi Germany. Sweden would not help Finland fight off the Soviet attack, but 8,000 Swedes volunteered for the Finnish army. Sensing the impending trouble, nearly everyone in the country pitched in (i.e.

, lent a helping hand), to bolster the Swedish defense lines. The meager Swedish army nearly doubled overnight from volunteers, and--by war's end--tripled from that. Civilians built shelters; scanned the skies for enemy aircraft; donated time and money, and made military vehicles and supplies.

Germany told Sweden to stay "neutral-but pro German": meaning that they would have to abide by Germany's demands. The Swedes would not listen to Germany's threats and told them (i.e. , German military leaders) that, if Sweden was invaded, they would blow up the iron-ore mines.

Although Sweden was surrounded by chaotic war, its citizens led relatively normal lives. However, every Swedish family was affected by it, because so many civilians were called into the military reserves After Germany conquered Denmark and Norway, they Germany blockaded Sweden from the outside, thus forcing Sweden to deal exclusively with Germany. This imposed terrible food and supply shortages, but the resilient Swedes made the best out of a bad situation.

They pushed their food production to the limit and used enormous amounts of timber for countless by-products. Nazi Censorship was rampant and anti-German and anti-Communist sentiments abounded, which was only compounded when Sweden's King Gustav V let The Third Reich move troops across and onto Swedish land. Tler did not invade Sweden because he did not want to waste valuable troops in Scandinavia when he had other concerns.

The Swedes proved their neutrality by not letting Germany use Swedish airspace: when the Germans flew over Sweden to attack Norway, the Swedes fired back with anti-aircraft guns. The Swedish reluctance to bend under German pressure infuriated but he had more important things to worry about--the invasion of Western Europe Answer tler did not invade Sweden because Sweden was traditonally a neutral country for over 200 years and tler did not want to bother Sweden when he already had Norway, a more strategically located nation.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.