Third World

The Third Estate

The meeting of Eastern and Western thought clears a field in which to revisit the historical contexts of third world and its etymological origins. Both the historical understanding of third estate and the reality of colonialism influence interpretations of human dependency and necessity within contemporary third world identities. These conditions are perpetuated with international aid programs and international political, economic, and juridical bodies. The third estate during the Middle Ages was dependent on both the clergy and the nobility to fulfill certain needs: the clergy spiritual, and the nobility political and judicial. The lack of equality and the abuse of power between these three estates or three worlds is as problematic now as it was then. The relationship of third worlds to this historical social classification does, however, texture the historical genealogy of present global circumstances that continue to affect individual interpretations of human experience. A most significant [Page 836]aspect of the medieval third estate, even though grouped together as common, was the particularity of profession and skilled labor, exemplary of social multiplicity and diversity. The people of the third estate were artisans and craftspeople, the social class being responsible for much of the physical legacy that exists from the medieval period.

Colonialism

One of the more important historical trends that influences characterizations of third world identity is imperial colonialism, generally assigned a time period between the 15th and 20th centuries. Colonialism, originating and perpetuated for many different reasons, has had a significant and lasting impact on economic and social structures in contemporary third worlds. Colonialism is also a phenomena that textures the meeting of the proverbial East and West, where commonly more industrial, capitalistic nations exploited less industrially developed nations, mining their natural and their cultural resources. Colonized countries were used as centers of production but not necessarily for industrial development. Often when imperial interests diminished, countries were left in varying levels of social, political, and industrial disarray. These centuries of exploitation have had lasting effects on the formulation of indigenous third world governments that are not sufficiently representative of the multiplicity of ethnic groups that persist in third world contexts.

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