History of Montenegro
The history of Montenegro begins in the early Middle Ages, after the arrival of the Slavs into that part of the former Roman province of Dalmatia that forms present-day Montenegro.
History
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Slavs migrated from the Bay of Kotor to the River of Bojana in the first half of the 7th century, and formed a Principality there together with the White Serbs, Doclea from the land given to them by the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius. The population was a mixture of the dominant Slavic pagans and Latinized Romans along the Byzantine enclaves at the coastline, including some Illyrian descendants. Around 753, the population was described as Red Croats. Although the people would enjoy factual independence, they would attract Serbian influence in the 9th century. Under the following missions of Cyril and Methodus, the population was Christianized.
After facing subsequent Bulgarian domination, the people were split as the Doclean brother-archonts split the lands among each other after 900. Prince Časlav Klominirović of the Serbian House of Vlastimirović dynasty extended his influence over Doclea in the 10th century. After the fall of the Serbian Realm in 960, the Docleans faced a renewed Bulgarian occupation through to the 11th century. The local ruler, Jovan Vladimir contributed the Christian Church and his Cult still remains in the Serbian Orthodox Church that proclaimed him a Saint. Under Stefan Vojislav the people were freed of the Eastern Roman occupier in the first half of the 11th century. Vojislav is described as the ruler of Serbs and his people as Serbs, while he himself was either a Serb, a Travunian or a Doclean. After his failed uprisings, the population again fell under Byzantine domination, while Vosjiav managed to reclaim the Serb land by gathering the local Tribals and Serbs by the end of 1038. With the 1054 Great Schism, the Docleans fell under the domain of the Catholic Church. Bar became a Bishopric in 1067. Under Mihailo Vojislav, the exarch of the Serbs, Duklja reached international recognition as a Kingdom of Slavs in 1077. Mihailo's people were referred to as the Serbs, however he himself specified that he was the ruler of Tribals and Serbs as well as the one who ruled the Croats. The best Serb squadrons from the Kingdom had left in 1072 to assist the uprising of Slavs in Macedonia. From the end of the 11th century King Constantin Bodin was also described as the Exarch of the Serbs and his subjects as Serbs.
In 1082, an autocephalous Serbian branch of the Catholic Church was formed after numerous pleas, with the upgrading of the Bar Bishopric to an Archbishopric. The expansions of the Kings of the House of Vojislavljević reunited all the former Serbian lands, including Zahumlje, Bosnia and Rascia. The might of the Doclei declined and they generally became again subjected to the Grand Princes of Rascia in the 12th century. Stefan Nemanja, the future uniter of the Serbs was born in 1117 in Ribnica. In 1168, as Serbian Duke, Stefan Nemanja launched an offensive against this Greek Land, besieging and raising numerious cities, except for Kotor which surrendered to him peacefully and where he constructed a Chatteu. Nemanja, after converting to Orthodoxy, introduced the nearly non-existent Orthodox Christianity to the population of Duklja. Latin cultural advancement was effectivly put to a halt by ceasing the production of Latin books. The heretic Bogumil sect's religious expansions in Duklja ceased. Nemanja asked the Citizens of Bar 800 perpers, but the Archbishop never gave up from the siege, asking for assistence from Duklja's ruling Prince Mihailo , who was also being chased by Nemanja's forces. Bar's Serbian Archbishop, Grgur, wrote a magnificent book in poor Latin in 1171-1196 as his personal diary describing the die-our of the realm of Duklja and a work to boost the morale of the people of Duklja that it's Latin cities will stand forever: The Chronicle of the Priest of Duklja. In the first half he concentrates on a source from 753, the anonimous De Regno Sclavorum containing an early history of the South Slavs, while the other half is a compilation of parts partly written by the Archbishop, partly by others describing the then modern world of Duklja. The work was used to propagate moral to the citizens of Duklja that glory would be restored. With the final fall of Duklja to the Serbs in 1189, the death of Prince Mihailo and the introduction of Vukan, Stefan Nemanja's oldest son, as Duklja's King, the Archbishop and the Princess Desislava fled, seeking exile in the Republic of Dubrovnik with her two ships and the loyal nobility in Duklja. From there, she finally emigrated to Omiš and met her death.
Throughout the 14th century, the Houses of Balšić and Crnojević contested for control over the Montenegrin territories until the Crnojevich attained supremacy in the 14th century. In 1496, the Ottomans conquered Montenegro.
The tribes (Mixed slav-illyrians) organized into a semi-independent dukedom of Duklja by the 10th century. In 1077, Pope Gregory VII recognized Duklja as an independent state, acknowledging its King Mihailo (Michael) (of the Vojisavljević dynasty founded by nobleman Stefan Vojislav) as rex Doclea (King of Duklja). The kingdom, however, paid tribute to the Byzantine Empire; it gave birth to the later medieval kingdom of Serbian Great Zupan (Serbian: Župan) Stefan Nemanja, who originated from Duklja.
The independent principality of Zeta (which more closely corresponds to the early modern state of Montenegro) asserted itself towards 1360. The Balšić (1356 – 1435) and Crnojević (1435 – 1498) dynasties ruled Zeta; and though the Ottoman Empire controlled the lands to the south and east from the 15th century, it never subjected Zeta in any way.
In 1516, the secular prince Đurađ Crnojević abdicated in favor of the Archbishop Vavil, who then formed Montenegro into a theocratic state under the rule of the prince-bishop (vladika) of Cetinje, a position held from 1697 by the Petrović-Njegoš family of the Riđani clan. Petar Petrović Njegoš perhaps the most influential vladika, reigned in the first half of the 19th century. In 1851 Danilo II Petrović Njegoš became vladika, but in 1852 he married, threw off his ecclesiastical character, assuming the title of knjaz (Prince), and transformed his land into a secular principality.
Following the assassination of Danilo in 1860, the Montenegrins proclaimed Nicholas I as his successor on August 14 of that year. In 1861 – 1862, Nicholas engaged in an altogether successful war against Turkey; but in 1876 he joined Serbia and in 1877 – 1878 Russia against his hereditary foe, with the results that 1,900 square miles were added to his territory by the Treaty of Berlin; that the port of Antivari and all the waters of Montenegro were closed to the ships of war of all nations; and that the administration of the maritime and sanitary police on the coast was placed in the hands of Austria.
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 Ottoman (albanian) forces of Esad Pasha.
World Wars
Montenegro suffered severely in World War I. At the first invasion of Serbia by the Austrian armies, Montenegro lost no time in declaring war against the Central Powers. Although the army numbered only about 50,000 men, it mobilised at once. Austria despatched a separate army to invade Montenegro and to prevent a junction of the Serbian and Montenegrin armies. This force, however, was repulsed, and from the top of the strongly fortified Mount Lovcen, the Montenegrins carried on the bombardment of Cattaro held by the enemy. On August 10, 1914, the Montenegrin infantry delivered a strong attack against the Austrian garrisons, but they did not succeed in making good the advantage they first gained. They successfully resisted the Austrians in the second invasion of Serbia and almost succeeded in reaching Sarajevo in Bosnia. With the beginning of the third Austrian invasion, however, the Montenegrin army had to retire before greatly superior numbers, and Austro-German armies finally overran Serbia. Montenegro also suffered invasion (January 1916), and for the remainder of the war remained in the possession of the Central Powers. See Serbian Campaign (World War I) for details.
King Nicholas fled to Italy and then to France; the government transferred its operations to Bordeaux. Eventually the forces of Serbia liberated Montenegro from the Austrians. A 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, followed by a ban on his return. Serbia subsequently annexed or united with Montenegro on November 29, 1918. Montenegro thus became the only Allied nation to lose its independence after the war.
In the period between the two World Wars, King Alexander dominated the Yugoslav government. Although a grandson of Montenegro's king Nicholas, he worked against the ideas of Montenegro as an independent state and of Montenegrins outside a wider Serb whole. The Communist Party of Yugoslavia, on the other hand, supported the equality of the Montenegrin nation (with Serbs, Croats and others), in recognition of the desire of the majority of Montenegrins who fought in World War II for liberation and emancipation. This fact made the Communist party popular in Montenegro, which Belgrade all but ignored as a backward province during the reign of the Karadjordjevic monarchy in the First Yugoslavia. Tito's Partisans won the war of liberation and acknowledged Montenegro's massive contribution to the war against the Axis Powers and its desire for a renewed status by establishing it as one of the six republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Montenegro became economically stronger than ever, since it gained help from federal funds as an under-developed republic, and it became a tourist destination as well.
After the breakup of Yugoslavia
The breakup of Communist Yugoslavia (1991 - 1992) and the introduction of a multi-party political system found Montenegro with a young leadership that had risen to office only a few years earlier - in the late 1980s.
In effect three men ran the republic: Milo Djukanovic, Momir Bulatovic and Svetozar Marovic; all swept into power during the so-called "anti-bureaucratic revolution" - an administrative putsch of sorts within the Yugoslav Communist party, orchestrated by younger party members close to Slobodan Milošević.
All three appeared devout communists on the surface, but they also had sufficient skills and adaptability to understand the dangers of clinging to traditional rigid old-guard tactics in new and changing times. So when the old Yugoslavia effectively ceased to exist and the multi-party political system replaced it, they quickly repackaged the Montenegrin branch of the old Communist party and renamed it the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS).
Inheriting the entire infrastructure, resources and membership of the old Communist party gave the DPS a sizable head start on their opponents in the newly-formed parties. It allowed them to win parliamentary and presidential elections overwhelmingly. The party has ruled Montenegro ever since (either alone or as a leading member of different ruling coalitions), never losing power for even a day.
During the early to mid 1990s Montenegro's leadership gave considerable support to Milosevic's war-effort. Montenegrin reservists fought on the Dubrovnik frontline, where Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic visited them frequently.
In April 1992, following a hastily-arranged referendum, Bulatovic (as President) and Djukanovic (as Prime Minister) joined Montenegro with Milosevic's Serbia in forming the "new" Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which officially put the old Yugoslavia to rest.
Soon, because of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia's role in the fighting in Bosnia and Croatia, the United Nations imposed a trade embargo on FR Yugoslavia: this affected many aspects of life in the country.
Due to its favourable geographical location (it had access to the Adriatic Sea and a water-link to Albania across Lake Skadar) Montenegro became a hub for smuggling activity. The entire Montenegrin industrial production had stopped, and the republic's main economic activity became the smuggling of user goods - especially those in short supply like petrol and cigarettes, both of which skyrocketed in price. It became a de facto legalized practice and it went on for years. At best, the Montenegrin government turned a blind eye to the illegal activity, but mostly it took an active part in it. Smuggling made millionaires out of all sorts of shady individuals, including senior government officials. Milo Djukanovic continues to face actions in various Italian courts over his role in widespread smuggling during the 1990s and in providing safe haven in Montenegro for different Italian Mafia figures who also allegedly took part in the smuggling distribution chain.
In 1997 a bitter dispute over presidential election results took place. It ended with Milo Djukanovic winning over Momir Bulatovic in a second-round run-off plagued with irregularities. Nonetheless, the authorities allowed the results to stand. Former close allies had by this time become bitter foes, which resulted in a near-warlike atmosphere in Montenegro for months during the autumn of 1997. It also split the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro. Bulatovic and his followers broke away to form the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP), staying loyal to Milosevic, whereas Djukanovic began to distance himself from Serbia. This distance from the policies of Milosevic played a role in sparing Montenegro from the heavy bombing that Serbia endured in the spring of 1999 during the NATO air-campaign.
Djukanovic came out a clear winner from this political fight, as he never lost power for even a day. Bulatovic, on the other hand, never held office again in Montenegro after 1997 and eventually retired from politics in 2001, soon after new Serbian authorities led by Zoran Djindjic shipped Milosevic to The Hague to stand trial.
In 2003, after years of wrangling and outside assistance, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia renamed itself as "Serbia and Montenegro" and officially reconstituted itself as a loose state union. A referendum on full Montenegrin independence is set to be held at May 21 2006.
Etymology
The name Montenegro derives from the Venetian phrase for "black mountain", the black appearance of Mount Lovćen's pine forests inspiring early Venetian conquerors. Crna Gora calques Monte negro in the Serbian language.
See also
- Montenegro
- History of Yugoslavia
- History of the Balkans
- History of Europe
- Demographic history of Montenegro
- Rulers of Montenegro - a list
External links
- History of Montenegro by Montenet
- History of Montenegro on Montenegro.org
- The Njegoskij Fund Public Project : Private family archives-based digital documentary fund focused on history and culture of Royal Montenegro.
- King Nicholas of Montenegro and Essad Pasha of Albania: The Black Mountain Folk vs. the Sons of the Eagle