Third World

1. The developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin American.
2. Minority groups as a whole within a larger prevailing culture.

Name for the less-developed countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Underdeveloped or developing countries, as in The conditions in our poorest rural areas resemble those in the third world. This expression originated in the mid-1900s, at first denoting those countries in Asia and Africa that were not aligned with either the Communist bloc nations or the non-Communist Western nations. Because they were for the most part poor and underdeveloped, the term was transferred to all countries with those characteristics, and later still to poorer groups within a larger prevailing culture.

Usually the Third World the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

The precise historical origins of the term are disputed, but during the Cold War it was applied to the less developed countries that belonged to neither the advanced industrial capitalist West (First World) or the Soviet socialist bloc. The Third World, mostly former colonies, was politically non-aligned. It denoted the poor countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America (also referred to as the South), distinguished from the North largely on economic, not ideological grounds.

Always liable to mislead, the term has outlived its usefulness. It suggests a uniformity among countries that are extremely varied economically as well as culturally, socially, and politically. They all share an objection to colonization, and to foreign domination generally (see also imperialism), but they hardly constitute a cohesive political force (see also non-alignment). The demise of the Second World following the end of communism there also renders the term anomalous.

— Peter Burnell

For more information on third world, visit Britannica.com.

The nonaligned nations — which are often developing nations — of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They are in a “third” group of nations because they were allied neither with the United States nor with the former Soviet Union.

Quotes:

"The Third World is not a reality but an ideology." - Hannah Arendt

"History is strewn with the wrecks of nations which have gained a little progressiveness at the cost of a great deal of hard manliness, and have thus prepared themselves for destruction as soon as the movements of the world gave a chance for it." - Walter Bagehot

"Remember the rights of the savage, as we call him. Remember that the happiness of his humble home, remember that the sanctity of life in the hill villages of Afghanistan, among the winter snows, is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God, as can be your own." - William E. Gladstone

"People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free." - Hubert H. Humphrey

"The great battleground for the defense and expansion of freedom today is the whole southern half of the globe... the lands of the rising peoples. Their revolution is the greatest in human history. They seek an end to injustice, tyranny and exploitation. More than an end, they seek a beginning." - John F. Kennedy

"To the United States the Third World often takes the form of a black woman who has been made pregnant in a moment of passion and who shows up one day in the reception room on the forty-ninth floor threatening to make a scene. The lawyers pay the woman off; sometimes uniformed guards accompany her to the elevators." - Lewis H. Lapham

See more famous quotes about Third World

For other uses, see Third World (disambiguation).

The three worlds as they were separated during the Cold War era, each with its respective allies. Colors do not represent current economical development.      First World: the United States and its allies.      Second World: the Soviet Union and its allies.      Third World: Non-aligned and neutral countries.

The term Third World (derived from the French tiers monde) arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or neutral with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World) or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Although the term is still used colloquially to describe the poorest countries in the world, it lost true meaning after the fall of the Soviet Union and the resultant deprecation of the terms First World and Second World. Common alternatives include developing world and Global South. A term gaining recognition is Majority World as most of the world is still developing.

Contents 1 History 2 See also 3 Further reading 4 External links

History

An abandoned Mogadishu street in 1993

A number of Third World countries were former colonies and with the end of imperialism many of these countries, especially the smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of nation and institution-building on their own for the first time. Due to this common background a lot of these nations were for most of the 20th century, and are still today, "developing" in economic terms. This term when used today generally denotes countries that have not "developed" to the same levels as OECD countries, and which are thus in the process of "developing". In the 1980s, economist Peter Bauer offered a competing definition for the term Third World. He claimed that the attachment of Third World status to a particular country was not based on any stable economic or political criteria, and was a mostly arbitrary process. The large diversity of countries that were considered to be part of the Third World, from Indonesia to Afghanistan, ranged widely from economically primitive to economically advanced and from politically non-aligned to Soviet- or Western-leaning. The only characteristic that Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid" (the giving of which he strongly opposed). Thus, the aggregate term "Third World" was challenged as misleading even during the Cold War period.

See also

• Seven worlds index

Further reading

• A. R. Kasdan, The Third World: A New Focus for Development. (1973)
• E. Hermassi, The Third World Reassessed. (1980)
• H. A. Reitsma and J. M. Kleinpenning, The Third World in Perspective. (1985)
• J. Cole, Development and Underdevelopment. (1987)
• Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory: Classes, Nations, Literatures. (1992)
• A. Escobar, Encountering Development. The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. (1995)
• P.T. Bauer, Equality, the Third World, and Economic Delusion. (1981) ISBN 0-674-25986-6.
• Whaites, Alan, States in Development, UK Department for International Development, London 2007, [1]

External links

• Hans Rosling at TED 2006

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v • d • e Economic classification of countries Developed country · Developing country · Least developed country · High income economy · Newly industrialized country · Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Worlds Theory First World · Second World · Third World · Fourth World · Seven Worlds Index Economic freedom List of countries by economic freedom GDP per capita List of countries by GDP (nominal), (future estimates), (growth), (per capita), (future estimates) · List of countries by GDP (PPP), future estimates, (per capita), (future estimates), (per hour) GNI per capita List of countries by GNI (nominal) per capita · List of countries by GNI (PPP) per capita Human development List of countries by Human Development Index · Human Poverty Index · List of countries by percentage of population living in poverty Digital divide List of countries by number of Internet users · List of countries by number of broadband Internet users

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