Blackwell Reference Online

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A term which some see as referring to all countries which were not part of the First (capitalist) World or the Second (communist) World. Others see it as having a French origin, derived from the Third Estate, which before the French Revolution referred to all social groups who were outside the privileged First and Second Estates (clergy and nobility). In both cases it refers to the vast majority of poor and underdeveloped countries (several of which formed the non‐aligned movement ) in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Some historians reject the term altogether, as it is not a precise analytical concept and hold that it is meaningless to group together countries as disparate as Egypt and Liberia. Willy brandt , former Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, preferred to speak of the north‐south divide , but this too has been criticized as imprecise and misleading. Inside the Third World: The Anatomy of Poverty , ( 1993 ). ... log in or subscribe to read full text