and went beyond their limits, landing in India in 1497. He made three trips to India over the following thirty years, the last of which took place in 1524 after his appointment by the King as viceroy of India. He did not live long after his arrival; some speculate he was poisoned by corrupt administrators who feared punishment at his hands. In 1543, Portuguese sailors were shipwrecked in Japan. They did not stay long, but left behind the technique of musket-making. In that way, a handful of men changed Japanese history forever, as the samurai era was drowned by the sound of musketfire. By that time Portugal's overseas holdings were vast, comprising holdings all over Africa, India, China, Macao, and South America. In 1580 Spain awoke, flexing its muscles as the world's pre-eminent power. It took the opportunity to occupy Portugal, and for almost 100 years the two countries were united. The Portuguese royalty did not give up, though, and through clever diplomacy and alliance with England they were able to restore their monarchy and, with Spain greatly weakened and demoralized by the Thirty Years' War, finally forced Spanish recognition of Portuguese independence. Portugal remained an influential and wealthy European power through the Napoleonic Wars, when its alliance with Britain gave the British a foothold on the Continent to oppose Napoleon's armies. Portugal's prosperity lasted until the 1890s, when a combination of inflation and sluggish industrialization undermined its industries. Dissatisfaction with the monarchy led to a coup and the establishment of a republic in 1910; this did not last long, as radical groups pursued extreme agendas and unrest grew. In 1926, the army bloodlessly overthrew the republic; the junta asked a university professor and occasional member of parliament named Antonio Oliviera de Salazar to assume control of all economic policy. Six years later, Salazar became prime minister, a limited office in theory but dictator in practice. Salazar's new constitution formalized his powers and he ruled Portugal with absolute authority for nearly 40 years. In 1968 Salazar suffered a stroke; his ministers tried to continue the dictatorship but in 1974 a democratic revolution re-installed a republican form of government. After narrowly avoiding a Communist coup, Portugal flourished, although it presently faces structural problems similar to those of its nearest European neighbors.