European merchants had to pass through the Mediterranean Sea, which was controlled by the Turks. They had to pay hefty fees to transport their goods. They hoped to find new trading routes they they could have monopolies on. When the American continents were discovered to possess vast amounts of gold and other precious metals, the race to explore and colonize reached its peak. In other words: MONEY would make them powerful, and they wanted to exploit every chance they could to be more powerful.
<span>north Korea became communist and south Korea
became democratic and neither the US nor the Soviet Union was willing
to see the peninsula unified under the opposing ideology. </span>