New Zealand entered the Second World War by declaring war on Nazi Germany with Britain. The state of war with Germany was officially held to have existed since 9.30pm on 3 September 1939, simultaneous with that of Britain, but in fact the declaration of war was not made until confirmation had been received from Britain that their ultimatum to Germany had expired.
Diplomatically, New Zealand had expressed vocal opposition to fascism in Europe and also to the appeasement of Fascist dictatorships, and national sentiment for a strong show of force met with general support. Economic and defensive considerations also motivated the New Zealand involvement — reliance on Britain meant that threats to Britain became threats to New Zealand too in terms of economic and defensive ties. There was also a strong sentimental link between the former British colony and the United Kingdom, with many seeing Britain as the "mother country" or "Home". The New Zealand Prime Minister of the time Michael Joseph Savage summed this up at the outbreak of war with a quote that would become a popular cry in New Zealand during the war: "It is with gratitude in the past, and with confidence in the future, that we range ourselves without fear beside Britain, where she goes, we go! Where she stands, we stand!" New Zealand was aligned with the Western powers during the Cold War, and made military contributions in East Asia from the 1950s to the early 1970s. New Zealand’s anti-nuclear stance led to the severing of overt military ties with the United States in 1985. The alacrity with which New Zealand went to war in 1939 showed that dominion autonomy had not weakened the country’s ties with Great Britain. At first the war resembled that of 1914; troops were sent to Egypt to train for the European conflict. There they were directly involved by the enemy advance there and saw action in Greece, Crete, North Africa, and Italy. After 1941 New Zealand was directly threatened by Japan, which meant New Zealand had to concentrate forces in the Pacific. Well before the end of the war, the strain upon the country’s manpower, together with the demands of home production, forced a reduction of commitments in the Pacific. After World War II, New Zealand began to play a relatively independent role in world affairs. That development, in fact, had begun before the war, when the Labor government’s attitude to the League of Nations was colored by an idealism that clashed with British policy. During the war, Fraser had insisted on an independent voice in the councils of the Allied Powers. At the formation of the United Nations in 1945, he became a notable spokesman for the small powers and made a large impression on the Trusteeship Council. None of those developments weakened New Zealand’s close affinity with Great Britain, its loyalty to the Commonwealth, or its dependence upon the United States. |
The Pacific theater was dominated by the United States, the forces of which provided New Zealand’s sole defense. The fact that disaster was averted by American, not British, forces required a change in New Zealand’s attitudes; security was conferred by a foreign, though friendly, power. External relations in the post-war period reflected that new situation, chiefly through the ANZUS pact (1951), a defensive alliance between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
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