Developing countries, and/or the inaccurate, out-of-date terms[1] majority world, Third world and the "South" all refer to the countries that rank the lowest on the Human Development Index.
History
Many developing countries have been colonised. In many cases, this event has had a positive economic influence (as foreign companies and together with it, foreign knowledge and crafsmanship) have then started to enter the country, and some new forms of industry -ie mining- have emerged). However, in some cases it has also left scars as when the colonial powers exited the country, the economy declined as much knowledge/expertise left.
Economic growth
Throughout history, economic development has varied depending on the developing country in question. For example, most African countries have developed little troughout history, and even in the last hundreds of years have had little progress. Asian countries have seen -in comparison- much more development, although still less than most Western countries. The last decades though, things have been picking up quite heavily for all developing countries. So much even, that most developing countries today have a (much) higher economic growth than developed countries, although they are in total still much behind the Western countries. See the World Economic Outlook 2012 map
The downside of this rapid economic growth however that this sparks more urbanization which negatively effects the environment in these (still relatively pristine) countries.
Notes and references
See also
External links
- ↑ Although a convenient shorthand, the "South" is a inaccurate term as it suggests that the developing nations are further South than the developed nations. Consider Australia and Mongolia as two obvious counter-examples. Further, consider Albania, Japan and Malaysia as counter-examples to the idea of countries in the same region belonging to the same economic class.