History of Montenegro
From Wikinfo
The history of Montenegro begins in the early Middle Ages after the arrival of the Slavs into the part of the former Roman province of Dalmatia that is today known as Montenegro.
The Montenegrin tribes organized into a semi-independent dukedom of Duklja by the 10th century. In 1077, Duklja was recognized as an independent state when its King Mihailo (Michael) of the Vojisavljević dynasty was recognised by the Pope as rex Doclea (King of Duklja). The kingdom was a tributary to the Byzantine Empire and it gave birth to the later medieval Serbian kingdom as king Stefan Nemanja originated from Duklja.
The independent principality of Zeta (which more closely corresponds to the early modern state of Montenegro) asserted itself towards 1360. Zeta was ruled by the Balsic (1360s-1421) and Crnojevic (1421-1499) dynasties, and it was never fully conquered by the Ottoman Empire which controlled the lands to the south and east since the 15th century.
In 1516, Montenegro came under the rule of the prince-bishop (vladika) of Cetinje, a position held from 1697 by the Petrović-Njeguš family of the Riđani clan. Petar Petrović Njegoš was perhaps the most influential vladika, reigning in the first half of the 19th century. The first Princes of Montenegro emerged in 1852.
The reign of Nicholas I (1860 - 1918) saw the doubling of Montenegro's territory and international recognition of her independence (1878), the country's first constitution (1905), the ruler's elevation to the rank of King (1910), and further territorial gains following the Balkan Wars (1913), though the newly-captured city of Skadar had to be given up to the new state of Albania at the insistence of the Great Powers despite the Montenegrins having invested 10,000 lives into the liberation of the town from the Turkish forces of Esad-pasha.
After Montenegro's entry into World War I on the side of Serbia (August 1914), her occupation by German and Austro-Hungarian forces (January 1916) foreshadowed the end of independence. King Nicholas left the country and Montenegro was eventually liberated from the Austrians by the forces of Serbia. The newly convened National Assembly of Podgorica (Podgorička skupština), supervised by Serbian forces, accused the king of seeking a separate peace with the enemy and because of that deposed him. Montenegro was subsequently annexed to or united with Serbia on November 29, 1918.
In the period between the two World Wars, the Yugoslav government was dominated by King Alexander who was a grandson of Montenegro's deposed king Nicholas, but who worked against the idea of Montenegro as a different state from Serbia and Montenegrins as a different nation from the Serbs. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia on the other hand supported the equality of the Montenegrin nation (with Serbs, Croats and others) and became popular in Montenegro. When the Axis Powers invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941, the subsequent Partisan uprising of the 13th of July, 1941 wasn't only against fascist occupation forces but also against Serbian nationalism of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
The Partisans won the war and established Montenegro as one of six republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Montenegro became economically stronger than ever since it was largely helped from federal funds as an under-developed republic, and it became a tourist destination as well.
In 1992, after the breakup of Communist Yugoslavia and the introduction of a multi-party political system, it became part of the Serbian-Montenegrin Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The ruling party was the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro under the pro-Serbian leader Momir Bulatović. Montenegro, unlike all other Yugoslav republics, peacefully maintained a union with Serbia, although the referendum of March of 1992 that decided this wasn't fair and democratic. Since 1997, the leadership of Montenegro switched to Milo Đukanović, former Bulatović's prime minister, whose government supports the idea of independance for Montenegro.
In 2003, after years of insistence from Montenegro, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro and officially reconstituted as a loose commonwealth. A new referendum on independence or union is expected to be called in 2006.
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Etymology
The name Montenegro is derived from the Venetian "black mountain", the black appearance of Mount Lovćen's pine forests inspiring early Venetian conquerors. Crna Gora calques Monte negro in Serbian.
See also
External links
- Njegos.org: "Serb Land of Montenegro Guardian of Montenegro's Magnificent Heritage"
- History of Montenegro by Montenet
- History of Montenegro on Montenegro.org
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "History_of_Montenegro" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Montenegro, used under the GNU Free Documentation License
