Third World

The Third World is the underdeveloped countries of the world. Many of these are located in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The populations of Third World countries are generally very poor but with high birth rates. In general they do not have many technological advances. The majority of the countries in the world fit this classification.

The term originated around World War II. It was coined by a frenchman Alfred Sauvy. Tiers monde means third world in French. The term gained widespread popularity during the Cold War when many poorer nations adopted the catagory to describe themselves as neither being aligned with NATO or the USSR], but instead composing a non aligned "third world."

Leading members of this original "third world" movement were Yugoslovia, Indonesia, and Egypt. Many third world countries believed they could succesfully "court" both the Communist and Capitalist nations of the world, and develop key economic partnerships without nessisarily falling under their direct sphere of influence. In actual practice, this plan did not work out quite so well with many third world nations getting exploited or underminded by the two superpowers who feared these supposedly neutral nations were in danger of falling into alignment with "the enemy."

When the Cold War ended and the Soviet Union collapsed, the third world found itself suddenly no longer relevant to much of the world. All across the globe, many third world regimes who had stayed in power by playing one side against the other in the Cold War quickly crumbled from lack of support. In some situations corrupt dictatorships were removed, and democracy was introduced, and the nations were able to make significant economic progress, creating several newly industrialized nations. In other cases the corrupt outdated, regimes remained, and many nations soon became poorer than ever.

Today, third world countries are located mostly in Africa, and parts of Asia.

Also known as the Global South, Least developed countries in academic circles.

See also : famine, drought, colonization, neocolonialism.