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The Korean peninsula was first established around the fourth century when the Chinese colonies were replaced by three kingdoms. These three kingdoms were very competitive and maintained very close ties to China hoping to gain an advantage over each other. The three kingdoms unified at around 660 and drove all Chinese establishments out, and at around 668 the Korean people became a nation; creating there own language, culture and making Buddhism their state religion. Over the years while Korea was still young uprisings tore the new nation apart, however, a military officer named Wang Kon took over power and reunited the new nation in 935. In Korea there was a golden age which lasted from 1392 to 1910 but this ended with the invasions of Japan and the Manchurians. The invasions were stopped but hurt Korea economically which led to greater problems. So at around 1910 Japan attempted to eliminate all that was Korean, and when Koreans held a massive demonstration called March First Movement thousands of Korean civilians were killed by the Japanese. Then at the end of World War II, Japanese again abused Korea with forced labor. At the end of the war Korea was divided at the 38th parallel with the U.S.S.R. controlling the Nort