Worlds Within the World —
First, Second and Third Worlds

This is a general, somewhat outdated model of the world from the time of the cold war. The notion of three worlds is a political characterization from after World War II when the world split into two sections. The "First World" was considered to be the developed, capitalist, democratic-industrial countries including North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The "Second World" refers to the former communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.

The "Third World' originally referred to all the counties not aligned with the first or second worlds. This included Central and South America, North and South Africa, the Middle East, and parts of South East Asia. Today the term third world most often refers to underdeveloped or developing countries of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Asia (excluding Japan), and the Pacific Islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia.

Travel opportunities are least expensive and most interesting in the countries of the third world.