A non neutral Switzerland

Since my trip to Switzerland, I have often been curious what the makeup of Europe, even the international world if Switzerland was not neutral. Now I know that this theory depends heavily on the POD, a few dates that I have thought of were 1. They never were neutral, 2. They emerged in 1914, they emerged in 1933, they emerged in 1960 or they emerged in 1990. Each date provides a different possibility to possibily change Europe to near unrecognizable fashions.
 
Problem is: Why?

Other comparable Western-European countries were the Netherlands, Belgium or Sweden. These stayed neutral as well until being attacked. The problem is that neither neighbour of Switzerland can gain a strategic advantage of attacking Switzerland and Switzerland is easily defendable in comparison to the other neutral countries.

On the other side, Switzerland has no colonies or foreign dependencies which might be used to blackmail it into war. And it shares borders with both France and Germany, making it nearly ASB to join any larger war in Europe prior to 1950, as these two nations would have fought each other.

The only conclusion would therefore be that Switzerland joins NATO. I'd say that this would have happened as soon as WWIII had started.
 
It's not like the Swiss are neutral by nature, they're just small, passive and have much of their history built on co-operate and non-intervention as opposed to direct action. I'm sure if the Nazi's invaded them, or perhaps they Allies made some really unreasonable demands of them they'd commit more to one side.

The implications would be fairly big. It might mean more integration in wherever they ally with.
 
Perhaps in the extremely unlikely scenario of Operation Tannenbaum taking place.

Hmm... so Hitler orders the invasion of Switzerland in, say, 1943, despite Germany having already overextended itself. The German military finds that, while they are succeeding in defeating the Swiss, and Geneva, Berne and Zurich have fallen, it's proving to be slow going and costly. Allied forces late in the war cut off the German Army groups in Switzerland when they cross the Rhine, leading to a few thousand German soldiers surrendering by coincidence the same day the Germans in the Netherlands do.

After the war, Switzerland, deciding neutrality perhaps isn't the best route to take, joins NATO.
 
I recently spent some time in Switzerland as well. I heard early in WWI the Swiss Germans called for siding with Germany, but their own French speakers balanced that out. In addition to the Swiss geography, their own divisiveness also favours neutrality.

Also rememeber Switzerland was historically a very poor place. The wealthy Swiss chocolate eaters is a quite recent phenomenon. As late as the 1920s the Swiss auctioned off their children to foreigners every summer to do hard labour so the family could survive the winter. I believe it was Mark Twain who compared the sight to a slave sell in America.

Neutrality is so ingrained its hard to imagine an "activist" Switzerland. I had a conversation with a Swiss major and came away feeling they would have remained neutral even if the Soviet Union occupied Austria.
 
Are you sure you aren’t mixing up what he wrote on Switzerland with what he wrote on Morocco?

Quite sure. I have lots of Swiss in laws.

Keep in mind they weren't "selling" their kids, rather renting them for the summer season when there was no work to be found. The girls worked as milk maids and the boys did the nasty stuff. Swiss boys used to be called the Black Brothers because they worked as chimney sweepers in Italy. I think Schwartzenbruder the musical is still playing in Zurich.
 
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