Why they are called "First World" and "Thirld World" countries? Where these terms came from?

Answer 1

The term "Third World" was created as an insult.

I believe that the term "Third World" was created as an insult term by a group of ignorant wild-capitalistic (as opposed to progressive modern democratic capitalism of 21st century) entities and corporations to whom everything under "THEY" was "First World" and everything they hated and was poor by their "standards" was intentionally and insultively named as "Third World" (refer to "Trash World"). Also refer to "third sort" or "refused and robbed nations". Perhaps it was done to in some way encourage growth and development in the poor nations. So-called "First World" was known as highly militaristic, highly corporised, somehow industrialised, highly commercialised and highly de-spiritualised countries which have had many colonies in their so-named "Third World" and have been stealing overseas treasures from those countries for ages. The rest of the world to them was "Third World" no matter what. Anything those so-called "First World" countries robbed and stole from was named as "Third World".


According to Nations Online (www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_countries.htm), the term First, Second and Third World refers to the post-WWII segregation of the world into those aligned with USA (First World), those aligned to the communists (Second World), and the non-aligned states (Third World). However the terms did not arise simultaneously. It was for the longest time the NATO bloc vs the the Eastern Bloc countries. Then someone pointed out that there was a whole nonb-aligned movement that is neither industrialised-capitalist, not communist-socialist. This was refered to as the third world countries. But there was no attempt to rank-order the NATO & Eastern Bloc. Subsequently, with the crumbling of the Eastern bloc countries, Third world just came to mean poor countries. (And presumably since the Eastern Bloc collapsed there would be no objection to the NATO countries taking the title of "First World".)

As for New World and Old World, these refer to the Americas (new world) and Europe/Africa (old world) in the context of natural science and evolutionary enquiry. So for example you might read about differences between new world and old world monkeys (One difference I recalled was that new world monkeys had prehensile tails (i.e. Spider Monkeys), whereas old world monkeys had sad little limp tails. These had no relation to the idea of Third world countries.

Answer 2

In a real sense, the terms arose because of the aftermath of World War 2.

Having already suffered lots of damage from the conflict, European powers were leery of another one. The second war had followed close enough on the heels of the first that to some it seemed like a third German conflagration was perhaps inevitable. So many of the western Europen powers established a mutual defense pact called the Treaty of Brussels.

Even then, though, another possible threat was emerging - a looming Soviet Union which seemed to be infiltrating greater and greater control of the region. Against their former ally, the Europeans felt they would need greater strength, so they enlisted America and formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The Soviet Union countered with the Warsaw Pact, and the lines were drawn in the sand for what would be the Cold War over the next few decades.

The two 'sides' in the Cold War were referred to by various names: Western Bloc and Eastern Bloc, NATO and Warsaw, 'Free World' and 'socialists', and so on. To ignore these two 'worlds' that were colliding in conflicts everywhere else was to ignore politics altogether.

As others have pointed out, it was the 'Third World' term which actually came first, coined by Alfred Sauvy into this political situation. It was meant to be a reference and allusion to an earlier political situation in France where the First Estate was the clergy, the Second Estate was the nobility, and the Third Estate were the commoners. Here's an interesting excerpt about the Third Estate:

"What is the third estate? Everything. What has it been heretofore in the political order? Nothing. What does it demand? To become something herein."

So when Sauvy talked about the Third World, we was referring to poor, politicially uninfluential countries of the world who, like those French peasants, demanded to become more than they were in the scheme of things. It certainly made a kind of witty sense in that if NATO and Warsaw were the two main powers, everyone else would be third player in the game.

After that it was probably inevitable - given the France was part of NATO and the insularity of the Warsaw countries - that the industrialized democracies become the 'First' of the two.

Further elaborations are still arising. Some have suggested that the 'Fourth World' could be those countries who don't seem interested or able to go after more power and influence. Some suggested after the breakup of the Soviet Union and some of their economic declines that they might no longer be the 'Second World'. So the terms are still in a bit of flux.

Answer 3

I would ignore most of the rants you've gotten so far. Those terms aren't used much today. They refer to countries that are in different stages of economic development. Countries are placed in their categories for a number of reasons. We look at what the basis of their economies is. Countries that depend mostly on primary activities that take products from nature -- farming, mining, fishing, etc. -- are developing countries. The next level is secondary activities that make products out of the raw materials, or manufacturing/industry. The next level is tertiary activities -- service jobs. People don't make a product, they provide a service. Another level is highly specialized services.


First world (or to use a better term "developed") nations have economies that have a larger percentage of service industries. Developing countries have a larger percentage of agricultural and industrial jobs. What we would call "Third World" countries are those at the lower end of development, relying mostly on raw materials for their national income. You may have heard the term "banana republic", which was used for Central American countries that had little more than bananas for an export product. Compare that to Japan, that exports hi-tech electronics and information technology. Which country would be able to afford schools, hospitals, systems of roads, and other aspects of infrastructure that would provide a high standard of living for the people there?
That's what people are talking about when they use those terms.

Answer 4

During royal times, France was divided into three estates - Nobility, Clergy and regular people. The "Third Estate" was the most populous, poorest and with the least political power.

A French political scientist based his concept of the three worlds on that, with the Third World, like the Third Estate, being the most populous, poorest and with the least political power.

Answer 5

The Cold War.

First World were the democracies.
Second World were the communist countries.
Third World were the developing nations.

Answer 6

The first world is (and was) Europe. Columbus discovered America "the new world" which became the second world. Everywhere else is the third world.

Answer 7

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World#Origin_of_the_term