From the 16th century right up to the 19th, Ethiopian slaves were sold across the world in what is known as The Ethiopian Slave Trade. And it was Haile Selassie who effectively abolished this practice in the early 1920s.

He sought to modernize the many institutions of Ethiopia and made practical attempts to take the country into a market economy. In 1924 he visited Rome, Paris, and London, becoming the first Ethiopian ruler ever to go abroad.

Rastafarians, mainly in Jamaica, consider Haile Selassie to have been a divine being, the Messiah, and the champion of the black race who will lead the peoples of Africa and the African diaspora to freedom.

Haile Selassie was overthrown in 1974, which effectively ended Ethiopia's longstanding Solomonic Dynasty.