influence as early as the 13th century. Vietnamese influence spread gradually and indirectly, and it was not until the early 19th century that Vietnam exercised direct control. However, Vietnamese attempts to annex Cambodia began in the 17th century when Vietnamese forces of the Nguyen domain in Cochinchina helped Cambodian dissidents topple its only Muslim king, Ramathipadi I. From then on, Nguyen lords and their successors, Nguyen emperors frequently intervened in Cambodia. In 1813, Nak Ong Chan gained the Cambodian throne with the help of Vietnam, and under his rule Cambodia became a protectorate. Following his death in 1834, the Vietnamese empire under Minh Mang, who held strong Confucian beliefs, annexed and colonised Cambodia. Cambodia was governed under a Vietnamese administration in Phnom Penh and termed a Vietnamese province. The Vietnamese emperor attempted to erase Khmer culture, which had derived the basis of Cambodian society, dress, and religion from India rather than China. The trend of Vietnamese dominance continued during French colonisation, under which the former southern region of Cambodia (the Saigon region, the Mekong Delta and Tây Ninh) was integrated into the French colony Cochinchina. The Khmer Rouge later justified their incursions into Vietnam as an attempt to regain the territories which Cambodia had lost during the previous centuries. Rise of communism The communist movement in Cambodia and Vietnam began before World War II with the founding of the Indochinese Communist Party (ICP), almost exclusively dominated by the Vietnamese, originally meant to fight French colonial rule in Indochina. In 1941, Nguyen Ai Quoc (commonly known by his alias Ho Chi Minh) founded the Viet Nam Doc Lap Dong Minh Hoi, or the Viet Minh. When the Japanese were defeated at the end of World War II, he initiated the first Indochinese war of independence against the French. During this time, Vietnamese forces made extensive use of Cambodian territory to transport weapons, supplies, and troops. This relationship lasted throughout the Vietnam War, when Vietnamese communists used Cambodia as a transport route and staging area for attacks on South Vietnam. In 1951, Vietnam guided the establishment of a separate Cambodian communist party, the Kampuchean People's Revolutionary Party (KPRP), which allied with a nationalist separatist Cambodian movement, the Khmer Serei (Free Khmers), in order to pursue independence. In accordance with the 1954 Geneva Accords negotiating the end of the French domination, newly created communist North Vietnam pulled all of its Viet Minh soldiers