Haile Selassie was crowned King of Ethiopia in November 1930. In 1935 the Italians invaded Ethiopia and successfully drove Haile Selassie into exile in Britain in 1936. In 1940 he returned to Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to lead a refugee army and by January 1941 he once again had a foothold on Ethiopian soil. Together with Generals CUNNINGHAM and Platt who attacked from the southeast and the north, he was able to claim the whole country by the end of 1941. By January 1942 he had attained independence from Britain and in 1945 overcame British resistance both to his joining the United Nations as a full charter member and to his signing the peace agreement ending World War II as a national leader. A dynamic and modernthinking man, Haile Selassie encouraged and welcomed his country into the vagaries of the twentieth century.