Why did Romania join the axis? Could they have kept up neutrality?

>>2926519
Because they occupied the dubious position of being one of the major producers of oil on the European continent without significant military force of their own and their major protector being France. It was either join the Axis, or have Hitler demand a load of oil from you and roflstomp your country if you didn't give it to him.

>Could they have kept up neutrality?
About the only way they could have is if France managed to hold up and be a major obstacle to Germany for the bulk of WW2. Of course, if that happens, WW2 takes a markedly different turn overall, so much so that it's hardly recognizable.

>>2926519
They would have ended up like Yugoslavia had they not.

>>2926519
They were Slavs and, unlike Croats and Bulgarians, realized that the Nazis will eventually kill them of the Romanians and enslave the rest

>>2926546
Romanians aren't Slavs. They speak a Romance language.

>>2926540
Well in the end it kind of did

>>2926559
Yeah, but without a long brutal civil war and getting themselves thrown into concentration camps.

File: IMG_0255.jpg (27KB, 480x360px) Image search: [Google]

27KB, 480x360px

Because their government was Nationalist and they viewed Trianon the way Hitler and the Germans viewed Versailles. Also because the Soviets had been sending communists into Romania in order to subvert the various unions and student organizations.

Take Hungary as another example- Horthy had just over a decade prior been forced to remove the communist dictator Bela Kun (who was coincidentally Jewish) who had collaborated with the Soviets and fled to the USSR after his ouster. The Hungarians understood the threat of communism and the Soviets all too well.

>>2926519

soviet invasion of bessarabia pretty much forced them

>>2926964
Trianon GAVE land to Romania retard

>>2926974
You're right, I remember it backwards, the Hungarians despised Trianon since it cut out 3 million Hungarians into foreign countries.

But no, the Romanians were too ideologically similar to the Germans at the start of the war to be enemies. The interesting part is Romanian traditionalism and "fascism" grew as a completely seperate and initially uninfluenced ideology- Codreanu was forming his ideology prior to any popularity of Mein Kampf.

>>2926988
Yeah, I don't get that. Romania had none of the typical ingredients fascist countries had

>Literally had all land claimed and wanted, no major number of romanians in foreign borders
>Growing Economy
>On winning side of WW1
>More or less stable governemnt

But Iron guard just sort of happened.

>>2926964
>they viewed Trianon the way Hitler and the Germans viewed Versailles.

What?

>>2927010
I've read Codreanu's For My Legionaries, and I've studied Romanian history of that period. There was a disconnect from the Romanian aristocracy which was decadent and initially Francophile and the people who were not. The communists were growijg in power and the coup in Hungary had sparked fears of a takeover. Codreanu had been in the university during this period and wrote how among academia a strong anti-nationalist, anti-religion, anti-tradition sentiment was becoming pervasive among the academics increasingly influenced by communism. He also noted the communist infiltration into the worker's unions.

>>2927010
Romanians just really hate Jews. I can get why they would bend to Hitler's whims after seeing what happened to Poland, but there was really no reason to so readily indulge in genocide and war crimes. The Finns and Italians managed to get away with not killing their Jewish populations or burning/raping their way through the Soviet territories they occupied.

>>2927064
There weren't any Jews in Finland stupid.
>Italians didn't send away the Jews

>>2926519
I guess you can ask the Iranians about Neutrality.
t.Iranian Diaspora

>>2927087
Finland did have a small Jewish population, and a lot of Soviet intellectuals (who were Jews) fled Stalin during the Great Purge and were granted asylum in Finland. They didn't hand them over to the Germans.

The Japanese was also a haven for Jews in WW2, because they read the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and thought it was real. Amazed by the sheer intellect and planning abilities to carry out this master plan, the Japanese thought the Jews would be useful for their war against the West. The Japanese still have a very hard time understanding anti-semitism and couldn't get why the Tsar would forge something that made the oppressed party seem stronger than it really was. No joking.

>>2927117
This is something I noticed living in Japan

>You: "The Jews control a disproportionate amount of the worlds wealth and media"
>Japanese: "Yes, it's very impressive, they are an industrious race!"

How the Japanese react to the talking points

>>2927087
>>Italians didn't send away the Jews

They didn't, the only Jews sent away were in areas directly occupied by the Germans. This is why most of Italy's tiny Jewish population survived the war.