where did the terms first - third world come from who did they refer to at the time
Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Communist Bloc. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and their allies represented the Second World. This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on political and economic divisions. Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term Third World has been used less and less. It is being replaced with terms such as developing countries, least developed countries or the Global South. The concept itself has become outdated as it no longer represents the current political or economic state of the world.
Triple Entente Russia had previously been a member of the League of the Three Emperors, an alliance in 1873 with Austria-Hungary and Germany. The alliance was part of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarckâ€²s plan to isolate France diplomatically; he feared that France's revanchist aspirations might make it to regain its losses in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian War.[2] The alliance also served to fight against progressive sentiments, which the conservative rulers found unsettling, such as the First International.[3]