Portugal during World War II
Upon the start of World War II in 1939, the Portuguese Government announced on 1 September that the 600-year-old Anglo-Portuguese Alliance remained intact, but that since the British did not seek Portuguese assistance, Portugal was free to remain neutral in the war and would do so. In an aide-mémoire of 5 September 1939, the British Government confirmed the understanding. As Hitler's occupation swept across Europe, neutral Portugal became one of the Continent's last escape routes. Portugal managed to remain neutral throughout the war despite extraordinary pressures from both sides, notably over the strategically located Azores islands and over the wolfram (tungsten) trade.
Portugal–Spain relations
World War II came to a close in 1945, with the Allies victorious, the two states of Portugal and Spain became increasingly isolated with their governments rooted in the old war, as authoritarian dictatorships, rather than the democracy that was being established or re-established throughout the rest of Western Europe.