Everyone refers to the "Third World". Where are the first two??

Answer 1

The First World refers to the Developed world. The Second World to Developing Nations, The Third Word refers to those countries which have yet to develop.

Answer 2

The 1st World is traditionally the industrially developed countries that alligned themselves to the Western Bloc in the Cold War (USA & Canada, Western Europe, Australia & New Zealand, also Japan would be considered 1st World and a few others), nowadays basically the same countries with high standards of living and industrially/technologically advanced. The Second World was the Eastern Bloc or Communist countries (Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, & also China) - the term 2nd World is generally not used much anymore since the collapse of Soviet communism. The 3rd World is then all the others that are industrially less developed (and also, very theoretically, previously outside of the 2 blocs in the Cold War when the terms arose). There is also the recent term 4th world, used for extremely poor countries (mainly sub-Saharan African countries, also Afganistan, Haiti, Bangladesh and some others).
Nowadays, the terms more used are developed, developing, less developed (and other synonyms) and least developed.

Answer 3

The terms First World, Second World, and "Third World" can be used to divide the nations of Earth into three broad categories. The Third World became a synonym for those nations that aligned themselves with neither the West nor with the Soviet Bloc during the Cold War.
Today, however, the term is synonymous with countries in the developing world, independent of their political status (meaning that the PRC, Pakistan, SRI, Russia and Cuba, 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.
The term Third World is also disliked as it may imply the false notion that those countries are not a part of the global economic system. Although it is also criticized as being out-of-date, colonialist, othering, and inaccurate, its use continues unabated.

In general, Third World countries are not as industrialized or technologically advanced as OECD countries, and therefore in academia, the current term in use is "developing nation". Terms such as Global South, developing countries, less economically developed countries (LEDC), least developed countries and the Majority World have become more popular in circles where the term "third world" is regarded to have derogatory or out-of-date connotations.
Development workers also call them the two-thirds world (because two-thirds of the world is underdeveloped) and The South.

Countries that have more advanced economies than developing nations but have not yet attained the level of those in the First World are grouped under the term Newly Industrialized Countries or NICs. Current examples includes China, India, Mexico and South Africa, to name a few.

It remains, however, that more politically-correct terminology continues to imply a path of progressive industrialization and/or (economic) liberalization not far removed from the more plainly ideological "Third World".

The term Fourth World (as least developed countries) is sometimes used to describe the poorest Third World countries, those which lack industrial infrastructure and the means to build it.

Answer 4

There's no specific criteria for classifying nations as "third world."
Back in the days of the cold war western nations were considered first world, commie countries that were industrialised were considered second world and the loser toilet countries were called third world. It's considered pajoritive to call any country third world. The U.N. has an even nastier label. Fourth world. Places like Uzbekistan and the like. The term is open to interpretation.

Answer 5

I think the "First World" is what the media also tend to refer to as "The West", which translates into normal language as any place with a liberal democracy and a bit of money that is not actively antagonistic towards the US of A.

The "Second World" must be places like Argentina, South Africa and Saudia Arabia that are at a kind of intermediate level of development, have "western" aspirations but are dragged back by either political inertia or immense social issues.

The Third World is anywhere whose problems are not solved by throwing money at them.

Answer 6

It's a silly way to describe countries. It assumes that you can measure and define so many countries in such a simplistic way. I mean, you can even get the 'third world' in the 'first world' (New Orleans after the destruction) and vice versa. At school, we got told not to use these terms, we would say 'more economically developed' or 'less economically developed'.

Answer 7

mammon.......or anyone else who agrees with mammon or the idea numbered worlds.......a 10,000 year old nation with the history of the earliest civilization, that still exists as a republic today is called a "third world" by countries with only 400 years of history. How am I to understand that?

Answer 8

Theoretically England is a first world country, but these days I'm not so sure.

Answer 9

great question, i always figured most western countries were considered 1st world, but i always wondered about a second world country. thomas

Answer 10

1st world-post industrial, 'developed', capitalist.
2nd world-comunist nations
3rd world-developing nations, pre-industrial nations.