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.