The Korean War was a major military conflict fought on the Korean Peninsula from 1950 to 1953, pitting the United States and its United Nations allies against the communist forces of North Korea and China. It was one of the first major conflicts of the Cold War and is often called the Forgotten War because it is less well known than the wars that came before and after it. The Korean War ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, leaving the Korean Peninsula divided along the 38th parallel, a division that continues to shape the region to this day.