What is ‘first world’ and ‘third world’? Where did the phrases come from and is there a ‘second world’?

Question

What is ‘first world’ and ‘third world’? Where did the phrases come from and is there a ‘second world’?

In: 13

Answer 1

These terms come from the cold war.

The rivalry between the US and USSR led to the bloc of countries led by each becoming very economically and culturally cut off from the other bloc.

This led to terminology in the US led bloc around these being separate “worlds.” The first world was the US and its aligned countries, the second was the USSR-led bloc, and the third were the wide swathe of countries aligned to neither.