Why are the poorest countries called "third world" countries? And are there any "second world" countries?

Similar questions: poorest countries called world.

Second world used to be MORE popular. To understand why we don't use "second world" very much anymore, you need to know the history of the term. Back in the 1950s, a lot of folks viewed the world as an "us vs. them" sort of place.

On the one side were the good, God-fearing, freedom-loving, peaceful, wonderful nations that believed in Democracy and Freedom and God. On the other side were the godless, loveless, evil communists. In 1952, Alfred Sauvy coined the terms "first world" and "second world" to refer to nations that were on one side or the other, and the term became very popular.

First world countries were allies of America and democracy. Second world countries were allies of Russia and communism. Eventually, the first worlders realized that there was actually a third thing that you could be, which was not particularly in favor of either one or too poor to care or matter, and so they tacked on "third world" as a thing to be.

Many countries were considered "third world" for many years that you wouldn't necessarily think of as third world these days, like India or China. However, many more 'third world' countries were those countries that were simply too poor to bother taking a stand on the America vs. Russia issue, and so slowly the term began to refer partly and then largely to these poor countries specifically. Since the fall of communism, "second world" doesn't mean very much anymore, and "first world" is sort of the de-facto thing to be, and so neither term is used very much anymore."Third world," however, has remained popular as a general method of referring to places that have a low level of human development (low education, extremely bad health care, extreme poverty, illiteracy, poor living conditions, etc).

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_World .

The "Third World" term differentiates them from capitalistic and communistic economies Modern western economies are the "First World", like the US and Europe. The "Second World" are the communist countries with government run economies. This meant more during the reign of the USSR.

All of their satelite countries were poor, but they were not third world countries because their economies were controlled by the USSR. Nowadays, there is China and Cuba and a few others in the second world. The "Third World" countries have similarities in poverty and economies, and were not directly associated with western or communist countries.

This definition is not black and white, as there is no actual measurement of a country to see what world it is in. Borderline countries have characteristics of more than one world. The link below gives a very detailed description.

I hope this helps. Sources: URL1 Manimal's Recommendations Challenge of Third World Development, The (4th Edition) Amazon List Price: $63.60 Used from: $46.50 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 4 reviews) The Darker Nations: A People's story of the Third World (New Press People's story) Amazon List Price: $26.95 Used from: $16.01 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5 (based on 5 reviews) .

Leave it to the French The term was coined by a French economist named Alfred Sauvy. He didn't really define the term in detail, but he was drawing an analogy to the Tiers-Etat, the "third estate", a term used in the French Revolution. The "first estate" was the clergy, the "second estate" was the nobility, and the "third estate" was everybody else, i.e.

The poor people. In particular, it's a reference to a pamphlet by Abbé Sieyès: 1st. What is the third estate?Everything.2nd.

What has it been heretofore in the political order?Nothing. 3rd. What does it demand?

To become something herein. In the French Revolution, the third estate rebelled against the first two, and that's what Sauvy was warning about. The Third World is the desperate poor, like the Third Estate of France, and they too might lead a bloody revolution out of sheer numbers.So he didn't really define "first" and "second" worlds.

People quickly came to the idea that the First World must be the top of the heap, the rich European countries (and even more importantly, the US), and that term is used a lot. The "Second World" was what's in between, mostly the Communist countries like the Soviet Union and China.It's the most vaguely defined of the three, so it's not used much.

Hmmm... I never thought about that before. Rickisgirl, another thought-provoking question. Thanks to Google, here's what I found: The term Third World came into use during the 1960s to distinguish the rest of the world from the two Cold War power blocs of the capitalist west (United States and Europe) and the Communist east (Soviet Union, eastern Europe and China).

These were the first and second worlds, respectively; the rest was the Third World. Who knew? Sources: http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/browse/glossary.html .

In terms of health care, the U.S. Is a "second-world" nation. The United States’ for-profit health care system leaves millions of tax-paying Americans without adequate coverage, mainly due to the fact that insurance providers and the pharmaceutical industry have too much clout in Washington. The United States is the world’s only industrialized nation that does not provide universal health care to its citizens.As a result, the rich get well, the poor get sicker and die.

Nice work, Washington. Sources: Sicko .

Of the estimated 7,000 languages in the world, one language becomes extinct every 2 weeks. What do you think of the U.S. " "Can you name the five European countries that remained neutral during World War Two? " "If you go awol from the british army, are you banned from certain countries around the world?" "Why doesn't America emphasize learning different languages in schools the way many European countries do?

" "Why are the poorest coutries called third world? Is helpful or not helpfu" "we're only as good as the poorest among us" "Are there any modern countries in the world today that don't use the Gregorian calendar?" "How many countries in the world do not have toll roads? " "What kinds of emergency services are available in third world countries and what is their response time?

" "Do you belive in a World Court to decide verdicts against countries?

Of the estimated 7,000 languages in the world, one language becomes extinct every 2 weeks. What do you think of the U.S.

We're only as good as the poorest among us.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.