"Free World" is a Cold War-era term often used to describe countries that were not in the sphere of influence of, or allied with communist states, particularly the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China. It is often used interchangeably with "First World".
The term usually refers to countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, and organizations such as the European Union and NATO. In addition, the "Free World" occasionally includes the Commonwealth realms, Japan, Israel, and India.
Authoritarian and dictatorial states were also included in the "Free World", provided that they were either capitalistic or anti-communist. Notable examples include Spain under Francisco Franco, apartheid-era South Africa, and Greece under the military junta of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Read more about Free World: Origins, Recent Usage, Criticism, "Leader of The Free World", In Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words free and/or world:
“I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.”
—Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876)
“...one of my motivating forces has been to recreate the world I know into a world I wish I could be in. Hence my optimism and happy endings. But I’ve never dreamed I could actually reshape the real world.”
—Kristin Hunter (b. 1931)