The term "Third World" was first used by a French journalist in the 1950s to describe countries which were not part of the industrial world (the First World) or the Communist bloc (the Second World). These days it is more politically correct to use the term “developing world”---with the richer, industrialized nation being the “developed world”---and describe Third World nations as “developing countries."
By one count there are 139 developing countries. By the late 2000s, according to another reckoning, the Third World consisted of about 50 countries---many of them in Sub-Sahara Africa as well as countries like Laos, East Timor, Yemen, Kyrgyzstan, Haiti and Bolivia---and it embraced about 1 billion people and no longer included China and India.
Colonization and Imperialism
Colonialism is defined as the policy of one nation seeking to extend its powers over other territories. In the 18th and 19th centuries, European nations became stronger and richer through industrialization as nations and empires outside of Europe became weaker because they failed to industrialize. Increasingly, the European nations began eyeing counties outside Europe as sources of raw materials and markets for their goods and as outright colonies.
Imperialism is defined as the policy of one nation or empire extending the rule of authority over foreign states. It often involves the acquisition of territory of one state by another to exploit its resources. The Palestinian scholar Edward Said once referred to imperialism as “geographical violence." In the 18th and 19th centuries, imperialism became a major focus of foreign policy. India provides a classic example of how it worked: cotton grown in India for Britain was shipped to Manchester, England where it was made into finished goods which were sold back to India for a tidy profit.
The colonized countries found their local economies destroyed---or at least dramatically transformed--- as their populations were mobilized to produce and consume goods for the mother country rather for themselves. The population of the colonized country became second class citizens as the people in the mother country began to think of themselves as superior and feel it was their duty to civilize the people in the colony.
The process was not entirely negative. The Europeans brought their laws, education systems and views about civilization. But they also exerted pressure by controlling trade, defining the terms of the trade and forcing the colonies to become indebted to them so they could demand concessions. The local elite in the colonized countries often became fascinated by the West. They began using European languages instead of their native ones and attended European universities.
European Occupation
In the 16th and 17th centuries Portugal and Spain were the main global powers. In the 18th century Britain emerged as the dominant world power followed in France and the Netherlands. By the 19th century the world was divided up by the European powers. Britain and France and to a lesser extent Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands (and Japan too in some places) ruled their separate “spheres influence” so they wouldn't have to challenge one another.
