The first, second and third world countries today are being categorized based on their economic and security strength, thus, the third world countries were referred to poor countries. However, this was not always the case, and that is what the article of today will educate us on.
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According to Historyville.com, the term “first world” countries was developed in the 1950s during the Cold War era, and it was used to refer to countries that aligned with the United States and other western nations against the Soviet Union and its allies.
Therefore, according to this analysis, we can say that the first world countries included the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Luxembourg, Canada, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, Greece, Belgium and Turkey.
This is because these countries were basically members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which was established in 1949, and the first world countries or the Western bloc had other allies that I may not mention here.
Furthermore, the “second world” or the eastern bloc countries can then be classified as countries that sided with the Soviet Union under the Warsaw Pact of 1955 during the Cold War era. Some countries in the eastern bloc include the USSR, Albania, East Germany, Poland, Hungary (until 1976), China, North Korea, Cuba, Angola, Mongolia, Tunisia, Romania, and a host of other countries.
More so, there were countries that never sided with either the United States and United Kingdom, or the Soviet Union, and these countries are what was known as the “third world” countries. Some of such countries include Finland, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Switzerland and a host of other Asian and African countries.
However, in recent times, the first world countries are now regarded as highly developed countries with a strong economy. The second world countries are regarded as fast-developing countries with an average economy, while the third world countries are regarded as underdeveloped and poor countries.
Content created and supplied by: FrankChukwu (via Opera
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