<P> In present - day English, the Third World is "the developing countries of Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa". Third world countries in Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa include Russia, Albania, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Argentina, South Africa, and Armenia . The term usually suggests poverty and low level of industrial development and thus it is the opposite of the term developed nations . This usage is considered by some to be offensive . </P> <P> The term Third World was formulated in 1952 by French economic historian Alfred Sauvy to mean countries that were neither part of the West nor of the Iron Curtain . Thus the term originally had a political meaning as it arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist Bloc . The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba and their allies represented the Second World . This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on political and politically - related economic divisions . </P> <P> The Third World was normally seen to include many countries with colonial pasts in Africa, Latin America, Oceania, Asia, and Europe . It was also sometimes taken as synonymous with countries in the Non-Aligned Movement . In the dependency theory of thinkers like Raúl Prebisch, Walter Rodney, Theotonio dos Santos, and Andre Gunder Frank, the Third World has also been connected to the world economic division as "periphery" countries in the world system that is dominated by the "core" countries . </P>

Where does the phrase third world come from