Montenegro

   The Latinized name for Crna Gora, a small mountainous region of the Balkans intermittently under Ottoman occupation. Because of its difficult terrain and the fighting quality of its people, Montenegro was able to establish de facto independence when all its neighbors were Ottoman subjects. This was officially recognized by the Porte in 1799, but clashes with the Turks continued. In 1852, an Ottoman army invaded Montenegro but withdrew in the face an Austrian threat of intervention. When Montenegro supported a Slav uprising in Herzegovina in 1860, the Turks moved against it yet again and were again forced to accept Montenegro’s autonomy and boundaries.

   In 1878, the Treaty of Berlin established its complete independence, although Austria-Hungary was given a naval protectorate on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast. In 1912, Montenegro was the first state to declare hostilities against the Porte in the Balkan Wars, and it emerged from the Balkan conflicts almost double in size. In August 1914, it sided with Entente Powers but spent much of the war under Austro-Hungarian occupation.

   See also <>.

   FURTHER READING:

    Hall, Richard C. The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913: Prelude to the First World War. London: Routledge, 2000;

    Schurman, Jacob Gould. The Balkan Wars, 1912–1913. New York: Cosimo Classics, 2005;

    Stevenson, Francis Seymour. A History of Montenegro. New York: Arno, 1971.

   CARL CAVANAGH HODGE