Why is it that developing countries are famously called third-world countries?

Answer 1

1st world were developed capitalist countries, 2nd world were communist countries, 3rd world were undeveloped. During the cold war, the world was split into, Us, Them, and the other guys.

Answer 2

During the cold war, countries aligned themselves either with the USA and democratic countries (the 1st world), the soviet union and communist countries (the 2nd world). The unaligned countries were the 3rd world. They were generally very poor and highly unstable.

It is innapropriate to use this term anymore. For example, North Korea is really a 2nd world country, while South American countries are 3rd world. It has nothing to do with their wealth, but politics.

Answer 3

The terms originated in the 1960's.

Originally, a first world nation was a non-communist, economically and industrially developed nation like the USA, Great Britain, Japan, Australia, etc.
Second world nations were communist, economically and industrially developed nations like the USSR in the 60's and China today.
Third world nations were non-communist, economically and industrially underdeveloped countries.
The definition for fourth world nations follows this pattern but was rarely used. (North Vietnam in the 1960's).

Eventually the term Third World came to define all underdeveloped nations.

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Answer 4

Ask yourself how long it takes to develop a country, If it takes more than 100 years, well your third world