 Selassie was a popular cultural figure with his attempts at modernizing reforms - though they were ineffective.His rule was increasingly viewed as maintaining Ethiopia's feudal political system that heavily favored the Ethiopian nobility who had routinely rejected his reforms.The 1960 Ethiopian coup attempt in December 1960 saw an attempted overthrow of Haile Selassie by a group of high-ranking politicians and military officers to institute a progressive government under his son, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen, to solve Ethiopia's economic and political problems.