(name before coronation, Tafari Makonnen). Born July 23, 1892, in Edjersso, Harar Province; died Aug. 27, 1975, in Addis Ababa. Emperor of Ethiopia (1930–74).
Haile Selassie was the son of the statesman Ras Makonnen and the cousin of Emperor Menelik II. In 1916, during the reign of the Empress Zauditu, he was declared regent; after her death, he was crowned emperor of Ethiopia with the name Haile Selassie I on Nov. 2, 1930. Haile Selassie centralized the government of the country, abolished slavery and slavetrading, and introduced progressive measures in education and public health. In 1923 he secured Ethiopia’s admission to the League of Nations, and in 1931 he proclaimed the first constitution in Ethiopia. During the Italo-Ethiopian War (1935–36), he went into exile; he was active in enlisting the aid of foreign powers in the liberation of Ethiopia. On May 5, 1941, after the greater part of Ethiopia had been cleared of the Italian invaders, he returned to Addis Ababa. Haile Selassie was one of the founders of the Organization of African Unity.
Since he represented the interests of the feudal class, Haile Selassie did not aspire to carry out the sweeping socioeconomic reforms that would meet the demands of the age. The sharp deepening of the socioeconomic and political crisis in Ethiopia in early 1974 incited a revolutionary coup, as a result of which Haile Selassie was deposed on Sept. 12, 1974.