ABSTRACT
One characteristic of the postwar period has been the growth of new nations, particularly in the southern hemisphere. In the 1950s and 1960s the so-called Third World was born. As colony after colony obtained its political independence the number of member countries of the United Nations rose from 51 in 1945, to 59 in 1955, to 141 in 1975 and to 157 in 1982. In 1960 in a speech to the South African Parliament, Harold Macmillan, then British Prime Minister, referred to this process of de-colonialism as 'this wind of change'. Some indication of the speed of this wind in the postwar period is given in Figure 8.1.
