Haile Selassie I was an Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. Prior to his coronation in 1930, he had been Regent Plenipotentiary of Ethiopia from 1916. He is a defining figure in modern Ethiopian history. He was a member of the Solomonic dynasty who traced his lineage to Emperor Menelik I.
Selassie's internationalist views led to Ethiopia becoming a charter member of the United Nations. At the League of Nations in 1936, he condemned Italy's use of chemical weapons against its people during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. He has been criticized by some historians for his suppression of rebellions among the landed aristocracy, which consistently opposed his reforms; some critics have also criticized Ethiopia's failure to modernize rapidly enough. During his rule the Harari people were persecuted and many left the Harari Region. His regime was also criticized by human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, as autocratic and illiberal.
Among the Rastafari movement, whose followers are estimated to number between 700,000 and one million, Haile Selassie is revered as the returned messiah of the Bible, God incarnate.