During World Wars I and II, many countries managed to stay neutral, like Spain and Switzerland. Was there any major country (e.g. not a city-state or a micronation) that did the same during the Napoleonic Wars?
2 Answers
I just performed some Google search that gave me the map of Europe during Napoleonic wars.
Here goes the reproduction from Wikipedia:
See the image in other resolutions here: Europe 1812 map en.png
So, in Europe, in 1812, there were the following countries:
- Great Britain - fought
- Portugal - fought
- Spain - fought
- Papal States - fought
- Kingdom of Naples - fought
- German States - if treated as a whole (Confederation of the Rhine), fought
- Austria - fought
- Denmark + Norway - fought
- Switzerland - fought
- Prussia - fought
- Sweden - fought
- Duchy of Warsaw - fought
- Ottoman Empire - fought
- Russia - fought
- Holland - fought
I think doing just simple googling would help.
Please remember that Napoleonic Wars was not one war and countries (except Great Britain) did not fight in each of them.
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Balearic Islands are colored on the European Map - why? They were NOT occupied by Napoleon. Feb 9, 2017 at 13:29
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@OlePetersen I don't know, it was the very first map I had taken from Google, and this was 4 years ago.– VoitcusMar 21, 2017 at 9:54
No major European country stayed neutral (for the whole time of Napoleonic wars).
The Ottoman Empire (partly placed in Europe, although not traditionally considered a European country) possibly comes closest. But it was by no means the boring Swiss-style neutrality, so I would review the Napoleon's Egyptian campaign, the Russo-Ottoman War of 1806-1812, and the 1807 British naval intervention to get the full story.
Source: http://books.google.com/books?id=cG6JC_E1Rf8C&pg=PA269 combined with http://books.google.pl/books?id=h_TguykH1qcC&pg=PA8 to rule out Kingdom of Sardinia; combined with http://books.google.pl/books?id=QjzYdCxumFcC&pg=PA223 for Ottoman Empire.
Update: Ottoman Empire was in a war with France until 1802.
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I was also thinking about the Ottoman Empire, but she could be also considered as a belligerent during the Egypt Campaign.– VoitcusJul 9, 2013 at 8:47
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@Voitcus True, they were in a war until en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Paris_(1802) Jul 9, 2013 at 14:25