Emperor Haile Selassie, Ethiopia’s 225th ruler from 1930 to 1974, was the son of Ras (Prince) Makonnen, Emperor Menelik II’s cousin. He was a direct descendant of King Solomon and Queen Sheba, hence his nickname “Judah’s Conquering Lion.” He was born Ras Tafari Makonnen and bore that name until 1930, when the empress died and the 38-year-old prince was anointed Negusa Negast (King of Kings), Emperor of Ethiopia, and the Elect of God with the title Haile Selassie I, which means “Might of the Trinity.” Prior to his appointment as regent in 1916, Ras Tafari had a wealth of administrative expertise and an extensive education.
His early education came from private studies at the royal court and under French Jesuit missionaries, and then he attended Menelik School in Addis Abeba for formal studies. At the age of thirteen, Emperor Menelik II noticed his intellect and named him administrator of Gara Muleta province. He became governor of Selalie at the age of fourteen, Sidamo at the age of sixteen, and Harar in 1910.
Ras Tafari attempted to adopt a policy of careful modernization, economic development, and social reform as governor of Sidamo and Harar, Ethiopia’s richest provinces at the time, without jeopardizing his country’s sovereignty, culture, and tradition. His views were opposed by powerful conservative oligarchy forces; yet, despite intense opposition, he accomplished much to eliminate feudal control.
Ras Tafari facilitated Ethiopia’s admittance to the League of Nations in 1923 (and eventually to its successor, the United Nations). He prohibited domestic slavery and the slave trade in Ethiopia in 1924, and he wanted to open his country to contemporary economic forces by offering concessions and monopolies to other ethnicities.
During that year, he traveled to numerous European nations to gain foreign investments and financial help for Ethiopia’s development objectives, as well as improved terms for his country’s exports and imports through Djibouti. He encouraged education by encouraging bright young Ethiopians to study in other countries. He authorized instructors and physicians from France, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, and the United States to build schools and clinics in Ethiopia. Ras Tafari and Italy signed a twenty-year contract of friendship and arbitration in 1928.
The agreement called for joint ownership of the road connecting Aseb to Dassieh in northeast Ethiopia as well as import and export through the Italian port of Aseb. Ras Tafari assumed complete control as Ethiopia’s head of state after Empress Zewditu died in 1930.
As Emperor, Haile Selassie implemented more modernization plans. Within a year of taking power, he established a new constitution, nominated ministries, and established a parliament with two deliberative chambers. Despite having limited consultative powers, the parliament acted as a venue for critiquing his rule.
The exceptional achievement of Emperor Haile Selassie in instituting socioeconomic reforms and creating generally accepted independence and equality with other nations upset Italy’s imperial aspirations. Benito Mussolini’s Italy was attempting to invade Ethiopia in the early 1930s in an effort to avenge a previous loss at the Battle of Adowa in 1896 and to establish a North African empire.
Italian soldiers were repelled at the boundary wells at Walwal in Ethiopia’s Ogaden Province in 1934. This episode was exploited as a justification for war by Mussolini, who portrayed Ethiopia as the aggressor.
Haile Selassie’s faith in collective security under the auspices of the League of Nations was betrayed on October 3, 1935, when Italy attacked Ethiopia in violation of international law. As a result of Italy’s victory over the unprepared and unprepared Ethiopians, Haile Selassie fled Addis Abeba on May 2, 1936, for exile in Jerusalem and then London. He stayed in exile until 1940, when Italy sided with the Axis in World War II and Ethiopia’s government in exile sided with the Allies.
The Italians were forced out of Ethiopia with the help of the Allies, and on May 5, 1941, the Emperor triumphantly returned to Addis Ababa. When he returned, Haile Selassie promptly created a bilateral relationship with the United States, from which he obtained military and technical aid to help Ethiopia gain independence.
By 1945, he had fully cemented the central government’s control, and in the 1950s, he founded the Eritrean federation. Ethiopia’s constitution was updated in 1955 to provide for direct election of the Assembly of Deputies by the people; the first general elections were held in 1957.
He proposed a program to expand education to the university level, enhance transportation and communication, create huge industrialization, and create additional job possibilities. Meanwhile, with the end of World War II in 1945, Haile Selassie’s Ethiopia became a prominent player in world affairs. Ethiopia became a fervent supporter of the United Nations, and Ethiopian forces served as part of the UN contingent in Korea in 1950, with a comparable contribution afterwards made to the Congo.
Addis Abeba became the permanent headquarters of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa when it was formed in 1958. Africa became the primary center of Haile Selassie’s foreign policy beginning in the early 1960s. He was a pioneer in the campaign for African unification, organizing the first summit of African heads of state in Addis Ababa in 1963, which resulted in the formation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Similarly, he toured numerous African cities, successfully mediating interstate conflicts such as the Algerian-Moroccan border war in 1963. As time passed, there was substantial domestic political resistance, often violent, to the elderly emperor’s rule. Ethiopia’s economic development has stagnated due to a lack of cash, technological know-how, and sufficient staff. The country’s youthful intellectuals viewed Haile Selassie’s approach to educational, political, and economic changes as glacial and unduly cautious. T
he rising impatience fueled antagonism, which resulted in an attempted coup, which his loyal troops effectively suppressed. Following years of constant inflation, as well as severe drought and hunger in the 1970s that took thousands of lives, students, laborers, and members of the army were more dissatisfied. There were violent protests beginning in January 1974. Following that, army officers led by Major Mengistu Maile Mariam gradually took control, and on September 12, 1974, they toppled the monarch. On August 27, 1975, Haile Selassie died in Addis Abeba while under house arrest.
