Why do we say 'third- world country'?

Question

Are places such as America and the UK known as first-world countries? Where does the term 'third-world' country come from?

Answer 1

The term "First World" refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States after word war II, with more or less common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.

"Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.

"Third World" are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The term Third World includes as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries.

Answer 2

The UK and US are World Powers (so yes, first-world). Third world is a general term for Pre-Industrialized nations where most of the population is still Farmers (usually without even electricity and running water). Poverty is a common denominator in these countries.

From Wiki:
Third World is a term first coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy to distinguish nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Today, however, the term is frequently used to denote nations with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), independent of their political status (meaning that the PRC, Russia and Brazil, all of which were very strongly aligned during the Cold War, are often termed third world). However, there is no objective definition of Third World or "Third World country" and the use of the term remains common. Some in academia see it as being out of date, colonialist, othering and inaccurate; its use has continued, however [1] In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries, and therefore in academia, the more politically correct term to use is "developing nation".

Answer 3

Third World is a term first coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy to distinguish nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.
Today, however, the term is frequently used to denote nations with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), independent of their political status (meaning that the PRC, Russia and Brazil, all of which were very strongly aligned during the Cold War, are often termed third world). However, there is no objective definition of Third World or "Third World country" and the use of the term remains common. Some in academia see it as being out of date, colonialist, othering and inaccurate; its use has continued, however [1] In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries, and therefore in academia, the more politically correct term to use is "developing nation".

Answer 4

Third World is a term first coined in 1952 by French demographer Alfred Sauvy to distinguish nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War. Today, however, the term is frequently used to denote nations with a low UN Human Development Index (HDI), independent of their political status (meaning that the PRC, Russia and Brazil, all of which were very strongly aligned during the Cold War, are often termed third world). However, there is no objective definition of Third World or "Third World country" and the use of the term remains common.

Answer 5

Kind of arrogant cold war view, which is now slightly outdated, but:

1st world countries were Capitalist countries such as USA, UK, France, Germany etc.

2nd world countries were the Communist countries USSR, Vietnam, China, Cuba. (Communism being not as good as Capitalism, so they were called 2nd world by us. This has now come defunct with the collapse of communism)

3rd World refereed to the rest of the world, most of Africa, SE Asia, Middle East and all the rest, with pre industrial and often basically very poor or none of the above. Often countries that just exported raw materials and did not have any commerce as such qualified in this category (Brazil etc.) Many 3rd world countries were allied to either 1st world or 2nd world countries. (S. Korea and N.Korea good examples)

However although we do use the term 3rd world, it is often now refered to as the developing world as many countries now don't really fit into that category because of huge economic development (India, South Korea, Thailand etc.). Anyone going to SE Asia will realise that a lot of London looks quite 3rd world compared to Singapore and Bangkok nowadays.

The 1st and 2nd world (and a number of former 3rd world countries) are now normally referred to as the Developed World, where they have democratic govt, good education, equal rights, developed economy, education and low poverty.

3rd World is a very ambigious term and was often thought of as an imperalist arogent view of the world. In truth trying to distinguish what is a 3rd world county was or what a developing county is is not easy to define now or then.

To query the person above asking where do so many people get their Answers from ... being a bit like call my bluff. We are looking for answers, not definitions !!!!l! The reason why there is more than one answer is because there can never be a right answer , there is just a best answer, which can be justified !!

I spent 3 years studying international politics at university and believe me nobody will ever ever agree on what actually constitutes the 3rd world. There is no right answer!!

Good luck studying law.

Answer 6

AFAIK, the story is: Europe is the "first world", the Americas "the second'. "Third world" initially didn't have to do with wealth, but meant the newly independent countries of Africa&Asia, which got on the world map after WW II. Then it came to mean "the underdevelopped countries". That's why we don't refer to the 2 poorest countries on the Europoean continent (Albania and Moldova) as "third world countries". One of the previous answerers suggested it had to do with the Cold War. Not quite. At least in European politology, when one speaks about some countries being poorer as a result of the post-Yalta division, one speaks about the "East/West/South distinction". "South" is a synonym, just as unappropriate, of "third world".

Answer 7

The "Third-world country" means underdeveloped countries, the poor countries that haven't been able to achieve sound economy like US and UK due to acute poverty and old fashioned technology etc. These countries are extremely poor therefore they receive money from International Monetary Fund (IMF) every year in billions in order to run the country. Many rich nations support them by giving financial AID and used cargos ships as well as some basic necessities like used clothes. The socio-economic life of the people in these countries are really miserable and they are not self sufficient. Most of the Asian countries are Third World countries including Africa.

Answer 8

Please tell me where people get their so called answers. This is a little like the game of "Call my Bluff" where people are given 3 versions and one has to guess the right answer!
Much to the surprise of you over in the us of a you are most certainly not the first world (though as you think you are the world I can see where you are coming from) YOU were meant to be the NEW world! as opposed to the more established civilisations in Europe and Asia who were the OLD world. Developing countries in modern times have become to be known as the THIRD World.

Answer 9

Low economic countries are considered second or third world countries. Example: Australia and Ethiopia. Australia is a first-world country like America and Great Britain, while Ethiopia and The Sudan are third.

Answer 10

goes back to the cold war, the world was divided into two worlds, the east (USSR) and the west (USA), the country's that had no matter in this where the third world, time went by and the war ended and the two worlds became one but the third world remained "the third world".