Free World (World War II)

Free World (World War II)

"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 (World War II):  Origins, Recent Usage, Criticism, "Leader of The Free World", In Popular Culture

Famous quotes containing the words free, world and/or war:

    Whatever does not spring from a man’s free choice, or is only the result of instruction and guidance, does not enter into his very being, but still remains alien to his true nature; he does not perform it with truly human energies, but merely with mechanical exactness.
    Karl Wilhelm Von Humboldt (1767–1835)

    ... not only do ... women suffer ... indignities in daily life, but the literature of the world proclaims their inferiority and divinely decreed subjection in all history, sacred and profane, in science, philosophy, poetry, and song.
    Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902)

    But, after the war was over, just think what came to pass—
    A letter, sir; and the two were safe back in the old Bluegrass.
    The lad had got across the border, riding Kentucky Belle;
    And Kentuck she was thriving, and fat, and hearty, and well;
    He cared for her, and kept her, nor touched her with whip or spur:
    Ah! we’ve had many horses, but never a horse like her!
    Constance Fenimore Woolson (1840–1894)