Vietnam's history has long been characterized by the neighborhood of China in the north. For about 1,000 years, northern Vietnam belonged to China, but from 938 the country became independent and later expanded southward at the expense of the Champa kingdom. In the 19th century the country was colonized by France and during the Second World War, the country was occupied by Japan. After this war, the colonial empire did not have the resources to restore the regime and lost the military battle against the liberation forces. This led to the division of the country, which in turn led to the Vietnam War with major human and material losses for the country. The war ended on 30 April 1975 by the fact that North Vietnam took the southern part. After experimental planning in the 1970s and 1980s, the economy was reformed in a market economy direction.