The
history of Taiwan dates back tens of thousands of years to the earliest known evidence of human habitation. The sudden appearance of an agrarian culture around 3000 BC is believed to reflect the arrival of the ancestors of today's
Taiwanese aborigines. The island was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century, followed by an influx of
Han Chinese including
Hakka immigrants from areas of
Fujian and
Guangdong of
mainland China, across the
Taiwan Strait. The Spanish also built a settlement in the north for a brief period, but were driven out by the Dutch in 1642.