Editing First World (section)

==Three-world model==
[[File:NATO members (blue).svg|thumb|300px|right|Current NATO member countries]]

The terms "First World", "Second World", and "Third World" were originally used to divide the world's nations into three categories. The model did not emerge to its endstate all at once. The complete overthrow of the pre–World War II status quo, known as the Cold War, left two superpowers (the United States and the [[Soviet Union]]) vying for ultimate global supremacy. They created two camps, known as blocs. These blocs formed the basis of the concepts of the First and Second Worlds.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Gaddis |first1= John |title= We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History |year= 1998 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= Oxford |isbn= 0-19-878071-0 |pages= 1–2}}</ref>

Early in the Cold War era, [[NATO]] and the [[Warsaw Pact]] were created by the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively. They were also referred to as the [[NATO|Western Bloc]] and the [[Warsaw Pact|Eastern Bloc]]. The circumstances of these two blocs were so different that they were essentially two worlds, however, they were not numbered first and second.<ref name="p. 21">{{cite book |last1=Melkote |first1=Srinivas R. |last2=Steeves |first2=H. Leslie |title=Communication for development in the Third World: theory and practice for empowerment |year=2001 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=0-7619-9476-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PKAi6t2e5AEC&q=Alfred+Sauvy+third+World&pg=PA21 |page=21 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Provizer |first=Norman W. |title=Analyzing the Third World: essays from Comparative politics |year=1978 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=0-87073-943-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=05UboWXy6XQC&q=First+World+Third+World&pg=PA3 |page=3 }}</ref><ref name="leonard1542-3">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Third World |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Developing World |last=Leonard |first=Thomas M. |year=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |volume=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=08OV704armMC&q=Alfred+Sauvy+third+World&pg=PA1542 |isbn=0-87073-943-3 |access-date=27 May 2017 |pages=1542–3}}</ref> The onset of the Cold War is marked by [[Winston Churchill]]'s famous "Iron Curtain" speech.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} In this speech, Churchill describes the division of the West and East to be so solid that it could be called an iron curtain.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

In 1952, the French [[demography|demographer]] [[Alfred Sauvy]] coined the term Third World in reference to the three estates in pre-revolutionary France.<ref name=model>{{Cite web
 |title        = Three World Model
 |publisher    = University of Wisconsin Eau Claire
 |url          = http://www.uwec.edu/geography/Ivogeler/w111/3world.htm
 |access-date   = 27 May 2017
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20150512232252/http://people.uwec.edu/ivogeler/w111/3world.htm
 |archive-date = 12 May 2015
 |url-status     = dead
 |df           = dmy-all
}}</ref> The first two estates being the nobility and clergy and everybody else comprising the third estate.<ref name=model/> He compared the [[capitalist]] world (i.e., First World) to the nobility and the [[communist]] world (i.e., Second World) to the clergy. Just as the third estate comprised everybody else, Sauvy called the Third World all the countries that were not in this Cold War division, i.e., the unaligned and uninvolved states in the "East-West Conflict".<ref name=model/><ref name=leonard3>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Third World |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Developing World |last=Leonard |first=Thomas M. |year=2006 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |volume=3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=08OV704armMC&q=Alfred+Sauvy+third+World&pg=PA1542 |isbn=0-87073-943-3|access-date=27 May 2017 |pages=3}}</ref> With the coining of the term Third World directly, the first two groups came to be known as the "First World" and "Second World" respectively. Here the three-world system emerged.<ref name="leonard1542-3"/>

===Post–Cold War===
With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Eastern Bloc ceased to exist and with it, the perfect applicability of the term Second World.<ref>{{Cite web
 | title = Fall of the Soviet Union
 | publisher = The Cold War Museum
 | year = 2008
 | url = http://www.coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp
 | access-date = 27 May 2017
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170724220159/http://coldwar.org/articles/90s/fall_of_the_soviet_union.asp
 | archive-date = 24 July 2017
 | url-status = dead
 }}</ref> The definitions of the First World, Second World, and Third World changed slightly, yet generally describe the same concepts.