Why was Spain and Portugal neutral / not invaded in WWII?

Question

1. Why was not Spain and Portugal involved in World War II with either side? Was not Franco sympathetic with the Axis powers given the help they offered during the civil war?

2. Also, given their strategic geographical locations with the ability to limit access the Mediterranean, being a possible landing point for the allies to access France from the south. Or the Germans could have used their access to the Atlantic to build naval bases. The question is why did not any faction from the war invade the peninsula for their advantage?

Answer 1

For Germany it was unnecessary, they weren't going to be a threat and would be a useless ally. Occupying Spain even under friendly terms would cost men and equipement. Essentially the same as Vichy France.

With Italy and France you already have all the Mediterranean bases you need. The North Atlantic convoy routes are further away from Spain than bases in France and you have further to move supplies from Germany. At the time the railways in France and Spain didn't match so it would be difficult to move large amounts of fuel/weapons/parts overland and shipping them means taking them through the English channel !

For the allies it's a long way to go to land an invasion force and then you have to get them accross the full length of a hostile country before crossing a mountain range and then having another hostile country (France) to get across. It's very easy to bottle up a army in the Iberian peninsular - as Wellington found.

Answer 2

In "Mein Kampf," Hitler opined, "We stop the endless German movement to the south and west, and turn our gaze toward the land in the east...If we speak of the soil of Europe today, we can have primarily in mind the soil of Russia and her vassal border states."

He was concerned primarily with conquering Russia and eastern Europe. Fought France and Britain (enemies from World War I) as needed, but basically had no quarrel with, or interest in Spain and Portugal. It was better for Germany to have a (moderately) "friendly" country there than an outright enemy, especially given how well Franco's troops had fought in the Spanish civil war.

The Allies similarly had no "issue" with Spain or Portugal. They wanted to defeat Germany, and retrieve France and other occupied countries. But since Germany had little interest in Spain and Portugal, neither did they.

Answer 3

Spain was involved in the invasion of the soviet union by sending 15k troops called "Blue Division". In order to not putting his relations to western democracies at risk, Franco set having the involvement limited to the eastern front as a condition.

Already before WWII, ongoing from 1936, Germany supported Franco's forces during the civil war with secretly sending volunteer air force units, known as "Condor Legion".