Monday, December 08, 2014

"Three Worlds"

I like this map to the right dividing the world into the "First World", "Second World", and "Third World." Primarily, because it does so mainly on a political and not an economic basis. The "First World" here is depicted as the US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Rhodesia. The "Second World" is the USSR, Eastern Europe, Cuba, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. The "Third World" is the rest of the world including all of Latin America outside of Cuba, all of Africa minus South Africa and Rhodesia, the Middle East, and the parts of Asia not already listed as parts of the "First" and "Second" worlds. I am guessing this maps is supposed to represent the world sometime around the late 1970s since it has all of Indochina listed as part of the "Second World" while Rhodesia is still in the "First World." Despite being a better map than most it still has some problems. If "Second World" is to include all socialist states regardless of economic development then Ethiopia, Angola, and Mozambique should be colored as "Second World" and not "Third World" states. Likewise if "First World" means US ally then Turkey, South Korea, the Philippines, and other Middle Eastern and Asian states with close military alliances with the US during the Cold War should be colored as "First World" states and not as part of the "Third World." The actual states of the "Third World" were those genuinely non-aligned states such as India, Burma, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Algeria, and Zambia.

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