Third World

'''Third World '''

definition          The Third World originally described the Non-Aligned States that attempted to avoid being drawn into the Cold War between the US and the USSR. India, Indonesia, Egypt, and Yugoslavia used to be the leaders of the non-aligned states. Most other "third world countries" were still colonies of the Great European Empires during the early 1950s. As more and more colonies gained their political independence, the term was applied to the rest of the world that did not belong to the First and Second Worlds. The term today generally refers to all the Underdeveloped Countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In recent times, "under-developed" has been perceived as a pejorative term and the term "developing countries" was substituted. Since, in fact, all regions of the world are developing in some way or another, including the West or First World,. the term Global South is often applied to countries with low per capita income (<$9,000 per year) and low Human Development Indices (<.8 HDI).

http://faculty.ucc.edu/egh-damerow/global_south.htm