Some countries are called "first world nations" and "third world nations", what are the second world nations?

Question

Some countries are called "first world nations" and "third world nations", what are the second world nations?

Answer 1

It is an odd cold war term.

Third world refers to the non aligned nations...(not part of NATO or Communist). It just happened that most of these were less developed, and that is how the term third world became synonymous with poverty.

I guess you could brake it down like this:

1 - The bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, the "First World".

2 - The Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the "Second World".

3 - The remaining three-quarters of the world's population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third World."

Answer 2

North/South America and some of the Pacific Islands.

Europe and East Asia are the 1st world -- we are their colonies, hence the 2nd World.

We then found Africa and some other parts of the globe -- hence 3rd world.

Which ignores the fact that the Middle East and India and China were settled and civilized long before Europe -- but that's what we get for having a western-centric naming scheme.

Answer 3

"Third world" went out a long time ago.  Get up on your political correctness.

Answer 4

Russia

Answer 5

I think this term is from the Cold War era, before the fall of the Berlin Wall and dissolution of the Soviet Socialist republic... and the Second World referred to "Eastern Bloc" communist countries: those with industrial development but no personal wealth. It had something to do with the Warsaw Pact. I remember being creeped out by the whole concept when I read  George Orwell's science  fiction/political novel _1984_ (set far in the future, year 1984, when he wrote the book in the post-WW II cold war era.

Answer 6

"Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.

List of countries of 2nd world:

Albania

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bulgaria  

Croatia

Czech Republic

Estonia

Georgia

East Germany  

Hungary  

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Latvia

Lithuania

Macedonia

Moldova

Montenegro  

Poland  

Romania  

Russia Soviet Union

Serbia Yugoslavia

Slovakia

Slovenia

Tajikistan

Turkmenistan

Ukraine

Uzbekistan

Answer 7

Second World countries are nations from what used to be the Eastern Bloc.

Answer 8

They've all been overrun by the third world nations a long time ago.

Answer 9

first world countries: developed nations

second world nations: developing

third world nations: under developed

Answer 10

The 'First World', 'Second World',  and 'Third World' labels are used to define the political allegiance of the countries.

'First World' - 'Western' bloc countries, like the USA, the UK, and so on.

'Second World' - 'Eastern' bloc countries, like the USSR, China, and so on .

'Third World' - Non bloc countries, like India, Indonesia, and so on.

Since the ones that regulary use the terms 'poverty' and 'less developed' are the 'First World' countries, this lead to all 'Third World' countries be branded as 'poor' and 'less developed' until they swore total allegiance to 'First World' countries.

The newer labels for 'Third World' is 'Developing World' or 'Less Developed World', but the labels are still unofficially use to define the political allegiance of the countries.

In the novel 1984, the current 'First World', 'Second World',  and 'Third World' labels roughly fit in with the political map shown in the novel.

'First World' - Oceania (way much bigger version of the USA).

'Second World' - Eurasia (much bigger version of USSR) and Eastasia (much bigger version of China).

'Third World' - Disputed regions, basically everything that is not part of Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia.

In 1984 term, currently Japan, Singapore, and Israel are part of Oceania, while Latin America is still a disputed region.

Answer 11

The term "Third World" was actually coined by India's first Prime  Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.  It was a term to refer to economically disadvantaged nations while the 2nd World Nations were former Soviet Bloc countries.  However, these terms have long been outdated.  Economically privileged countries are now referred to as Northern Nations or the Global North while economically disadvantaged countries are referred to the Global South.  If you look on a map there is a visible trend correlating to geographic location and the amount of wealth countries have.  Western Europe, Canada, U.S., Japan and Korea have much wealth at the expense of Southern Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America.  In the North we are the beneficiaries of cheap labour and resources from the South while the South gets our garbage, interest from World Bank loans etc.  Former 2nd World or Soviet Bloc countries are sometimes referred to Transitionary countries today.  Australia and New Zealand would be an exception to the Global South and would not necessarily be included when this reference is used.

Answer 12

used to be 1st world - usa, western, europe, japan

                    2nd world - ussr, eastern europe

                    3rd world - everything else

after collapse of ussr i think it's usa, europe, japan, russia first world, 3rd world everything else