East Asia, especially Chinese civilization, is regarded as one of the earliest cradles of civilization. Other ancient civilizations in East Asia that still exist as independent countries in the present day include the Japanese, Korean and Mongolian civilizations. Various other civilizations existed as independent polities in East Asia in the past but have since been absorbed into neighbouring civilizations in the present day, such as Tibet, Baiyue, Khitan, Manchuria, Ryukyu (Okinawa) and Ainu, among many others. Taiwan has a relatively young history in the region after the prehistoric era; originally, it was a major site of Austronesian civilization prior to colonisation by European colonial powers and China from the 17th century onward. For thousands of years, China was the leading civilization in the region, exerting influence on its neighbours.[10][11][12] Historically, societies in East Asia have fallen within the Chinese sphere of influence, and East Asian vocabularies and scripts are often derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script. The Chinese calendar serves as the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived.
^"East Asia". Encarta. Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2009-11-09. Retrieved 2008-01-12. the countries and regions of Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Mongolia, South Korea, North Korea and Japan.
^Miller, David Y. (2007). Modern East Asia: An Introductory History. Routledge. pp. xxi–xxiv. ISBN978-0765618221.
^Zaharna, R.S.; Arsenault, Amelia; Fisher, Ali (2013). Relational, Networked and Collaborative Approaches to Public Diplomacy: The Connective Mindshift (1st ed.). Routledge (published 2013-05-01). p. 93. ISBN978-0415636070.
^Holcombe, Charles (2017). A History of East Asia: From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 13. ISBN978-1107544895.
^Szonyi, Michael (2017). A Companion to Chinese History. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 90. ISBN978-1118624609.
^Selin, Helaine (2010). Nature Across Cultures: Views of Nature and the Environment in Non-Western Cultures. Springer. p. 350. ISBN978-9048162710.