Global South vs Third World

If there is no Third World, There is no

global South.
 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, scholar
divided the earth into 3 parts or the
3 worlds’ theory
1. First World
- encompassed all industrialized,
democratic countries, which were assumed
to be allied with the United States in its
struggle against Soviet Union but not all
were. Like Finland and Switzerland
maintained strict neutrality.
2. Second World
- anchored on the industrialized, communist
realm of the Soviet Union and its eastern
European satellites yet it often included poor
communist states located elsewhere
- China is commonly mapped as Second
World
3. Third World
- non aligned world and as the global realm
of poverty, and underdeveloped, poor Soviet
allies – Mongolia, Cuba, North Korea and North
How the Third World became Global South
- by Alfred Sauvy, a French Demographer,
Anthropologist, Economic Historian who
compared it the Third Estate, a concept that
emerged in the context of the French
Revolution
First Estate – the clergy and the monarch
Second Estate – nobility
Third Estate - balance of the 18th century
French population contrasting the 3 world’s
theory
How the Third World became
Global South
• Most people of the Third World are ruled by
European colonies lived far from global sources
of economic, political and military power,
recently most were subjugated, most illiterate

• Awareness was growing among leaders, many

of whom had been educated in Europe or
America that raised expectations and hopes and
inspired third world leaders to try to improve
colonial living conditions and win political
independence.
How the Third World became
Global South
Global South has routinely provided models of
resistance for the world
Ex. Guerilla struggles for the colonized world
serves as inspirations for the Western Left groups
within the American Civil rights movement
- Gandhis non – violence initially directed at
colonial authority in India is now part of global
protest culture
- Occupy movement – drew inspiration from the
revolts of the Arab Spring against dictatorial
regimes propped up by Western states
How the Third World became
Global South
South’s concern on globalization in discussions of the
global environment amidst the threats of climate
change
Hunger in Africa wile land dries up
People are displaced after intense monsoon in
SEA
Flooding of Manila and Bangkok
Opposition to domination by the First World also grew
through increasing migration and travel that stimulated
by the 2 world wars
Many troops who participated in those wars were from
the Third World