During the late nineteenth century the French concouquered Vietnam and made it a protectorate and in 1941 the league for the independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh) was formed to fight for independence from the French and on Sept. 2nd .1945. Ho chi Minh proclaimed it independent from France. The French opposed this and wanted to re-establish their rule but where defeated on the battlefield by the Viet Min and where forced to surrender this ended a war and French rule. After the war there was a conference in Geneva where Vietnam was divided into two parts along the seventeenth parallel there where now a north and a south Vietnam similar to Korea the north being lead by Ho