Following nearly a decade of war between colonial France and the communist Viet Minh, which ended in a decisive French defeat at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, both sides met at the Geneva Conference on 21 July 1954. A provisional division of Vietnam was made at the 17th parallel, creating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the State of Vietnam (later the Republic of Vietnam) in the south. Much of the development of the Baháʼí Faith during the following period took place in South Vietnam; the first Baháʼí groups in the north would not be established until 1992, long after the country's reunification.