<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>
where does the phrase third world come from
French economic historian Alfred Sauvy to mean countries that were neither part of the West nor of the Iron Curtain