The Concept of a “Third” World

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The Concept of a “Third” World
https://doi.org/10.3735/9781961844636.book-part-062

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Abstract

The third world was a concept that changed history because of its categorization of the countries of the world into cultural and economic groups relevant to postwar realities. The term was coined in 1952 by a French demographer and historian, Alfred Sauvy, from his analogy with the third estate (tiers monde in French). In his analogy, the commoners of France before the French Revolution were opposed to the priests and nobles who made up the first and second estates, respectively. Sauvy wrote that the third world is nothing and wants to be something; in other words, like the third estate in France, the third world was exploited, and its future lay in revolution.

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