This Is An Interesting Question

[pocaracas]

I don't think Ireland or Portugal were leading world economies at the time.  Although both were generally smart enough to avoid getting involved in the war.

But they were great in the eyes of their leaders.

A nation, to be great, need not be a leading world economy. Only needs to be self-sufficient, live in a dictatorial regime that shuts down borders and keeps the people in ignorance of the outside world, feeding them propaganda about how bad the rest of the world is and good our country is, all while the civilizational and technological gap between the country and the rest of the world widens and widens.