Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I took that quiz before you posted. One of the questions was how many countries were involved in WWII. Their answer was 30. I came up with 37, but have realized that one of those was not accurate, namely Macedonia. I put a comment on the site to that effect. Here's my list (before correction):

Principal Contenders (8)
Germany, Soviet Union, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, China and the US
Independent Countries at the start either combatant and/or occupied during the war (29)
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Macedonia, Finland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Mongolia and South Africa
Total: 37
It could be argued that Ethiopia was already occupied before the war began, but that I would say was a precursor to the war and Ethiopia is still referred to at the oldest independent country in Africa.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I took that quiz before you posted. One of the questions was how many countries were involved in WWII. Their answer was 30. I came up with 37, but have realized that one of those was not accurate, namely Macedonia. I put a comment on the site to that effect. Here's my list (before correction):

Principal Contenders (8)
Germany, Soviet Union, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, China and the US
Independent Countries at the start either combatant and/or occupied during the war (29)
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Macedonia, Finland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Mongolia and South Africa
Total: 37
It could be argued that Ethiopia was already occupied before the war began, but that I would say was a precursor to the war and Ethiopia is still referred to at the oldest independent country in Africa.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I took that quiz before you posted. One of the questions was how many countries were involved in WWII. Their answer was 30. I came up with 37, but have realized that one of those was not accurate, namely Macedonia. I put a comment on the site to that effect. Here's my list (before correction):

Principal Contenders (8)
Germany, Soviet Union, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, China and the US
Independent Countries at the start either combatant and/or occupied during the war (29)
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Macedonia, Finland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Mongolia and South Africa
Total: 37
It could be argued that Ethiopia was already occupied before the war began, but that I would say was a precursor to the war and Ethiopia is still referred to at the oldest independent country in Africa.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy
Although regarded as colonies in the west, Burma, Malaya, India, Vietnam and several African countries contributed to the war and were distinct political entities from each other. No one would consider the inhabitants British or French citizens at the time, so they could be considered combatant nations.

Arguing the other way, weren't Ukraine, Byelorussia, Bulgaria, Romania etc. part of the Russian SSR empire before Sept 1939?

wow...Hitler had a nephew in USA??

ORIGINAL: wdolson
Once you get beyond the principle combatants and their minor allies, the list of countries involved in the war gets open to a lot of interpretation. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were occupied by the USSR in 1940 when the USSR was technically neutral. The USSR then declared them to be part of the USSR and except when occupied by Germany, they were part of the USSR until 1990. So are they combatants or not?

Saudi Arabia contributed their wealth to the war effort, but as far as I know no Saudis did any fighting. Mexico and Brazil sent small units into the fray so they were technically US minor allies.

Bulgaria and Romania were separate countries before the war. They only came directly under Soviet influence after the war when the cold war started. Bulgaria was friendly with the USSR before the war and though technically allied with the Germans they refused to send troops to fight on the Eastern front. Instead their war effort went into providing mostly policing troops closer to home. The Ukraine, Belarus, and the various stans were all part of the Russian empire before the communist revolution and were part of the USSR from the beginning to the end.

Ethiopia could be considered a combatant. The king of Ethiopia escaped when the Italians invaded and it was his free Ethiopian troops that did a lot of the fighting in the reconquest of Ethiopia. Ethiopia is sort of like China, their war started before the world war officially began, but their war was settled as part of the overall global conflict.

Various colonies that were in the conflict is another gray area. In many cases the colonies were run as separate entities from their colonial overlords, though they were subservient to their colonial overlord's government. Do the Dutch East Indies count as a separate country? The home country didn't actually exist at the time. Brunei was sort of an independent country and sort of a British subject state.

Then there is the gray area about the Commonwealth. New Zealand, Australia, and Canada were separate countries from the UK, however the king of England was still their head of state and those countries needed to get permission from the UK to do some things. So were they separate countries or quasi-colonies? Even today 15 countries have governor generals who are the official representatives of the queen of the UK who speak for her in those countries. There have been a number of laws passed since the end of WW II that have further separated the UK from Commonwealth countries such as the 1982 Canada Act.

So where do you want to draw the lines for a question like that? You could come up with any number between about 12 and 50.

Bill

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I took that quiz before you posted. One of the questions was how many countries were involved in WWII. Their answer was 30. I came up with 37, but have realized that one of those was not accurate, namely Macedonia. I put a comment on the site to that effect. Here's my list (before correction):

Principal Contenders (8)
Germany, Soviet Union, Britain, France, Italy, Japan, China and the US
Independent Countries at the start either combatant and/or occupied during the war (29)
Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Yugoslavia, Albania, Macedonia, Finland, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Iraq, Iran, Mongolia and South Africa
Total: 37
It could be argued that Ethiopia was already occupied before the war began, but that I would say was a precursor to the war and Ethiopia is still referred to at the oldest independent country in Africa.

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I'm having visions of my own excellence. This is not my thread and I'm trying to hijack it.

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I'm having visions of my own excellence. This is not my thread and I'm trying to hijack it.

I think Il Ducé is starting to affect you. Time to cut him loose!

ORIGINAL: BBfanboy

Portugal was neutral, not a belligerent. Not sure about Turkey but probably didn't have much military after being on the losing side in WWI (and busy building a new nation after centuries of Ottoman rule).

Not sure if the term Siam was still in effect for Thailand, but I think current day Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos came under the collective term "French Indo-China".