Southern Europe · MNE
Montenegro
The story · 9 chapters
How it was drawn
A mountain principality that held out at the edge of the Ottoman world, doubled in size in 1878, joined Yugoslavia, and became independent again in 2006.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Montenegro fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Roman Republic229 BC to 168 BC
Rome fights the Illyrian kingdom in 229 BC and 219 BC over piracy on the Adriatic. In 168 BC it defeats King Gentius and ends the kingdom.
- Byzantine Empire1035 to 1186
Duklja's prince Stefan Vojislav throws off Byzantine rule and defeats a Byzantine army near Bar in the 1040s. His son Mihailo wins a royal crown, but Byzantium later regains influence over the region.
- Grand Principality of Serbia1180 to 1186
Stefan Nemanja, ruler of Raska, conquers Duklja in the 1180s and makes it, as Zeta, part of the Serbian state for two centuries.
- Republic of Venice1420 to 1797
Venice takes Kotor in 1420 and holds coastal towns such as Budva, Bar and Ulcinj, contesting the coast with the lords of Zeta. It keeps the Bay of Kotor until 1797.
- Ottoman Empire1496 to 1878
The Ottomans absorb Zeta by 1499, but the highland clans around Cetinje keep fighting. Montenegrin victories, at Grahovac in 1858 and Vucji Do in 1876, lead to recognition of independence at Berlin in 1878.
- Austria-Hungary1914 to 1918
Montenegro fights Austria-Hungary as Serbia's ally from 1914. Austro-Hungarian troops storm Mount Lovcen in January 1916 and occupy the country until 1918.
- Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes1918 to 1926
The Podgorica Assembly of 1918 deposes King Nikola and joins Serbia. His supporters, the Greens, launch the Christmas Uprising in January 1919 and keep up guerrilla resistance into the 1920s.
- Kingdom of Italy1941 to 1943
Italy occupies Montenegro in April 1941 and plans a puppet kingdom. The uprising of 13 July 1941 frees most of the country before Italian forces retake it.
- Nazi Germany1943 to 1944
After Italy's armistice in 1943 German troops occupy Montenegro and fight the partisans, who liberate the country by the end of 1944.
In 1991 and 1992 Yugoslav forces, many of them Montenegrin reservists, besiege Dubrovnik; Montenegro's president apologises in 2000. The sea boundary off the Prevlaka peninsula, at the mouth of the Bay of Kotor, is still unsettled.
Today
Montenegro now
The use of the name Crna Gora or Black Mountain (Montenegro) began in the 13th century in reference to a highland region in the Serbian province of Zeta. Under Ottoman control beginning in 1496, Montenegro was a semi-autonomous theocracy ruled by a series of bishop princes until 1852, when it became a secular principality. Montenegro fought a series of wars with the Ottomans and eventually won recognition as an independent sovereign principality at the Congress of Berlin in 1878.
- Capital
- Podgorica
- Government
- parliamentary republic
- Head of government
- Milojko Spajić
- Head of state
- Jakov Milatović
- Languages
- Montenegrin
- Area
- 13,883 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population633,6002023 · 402,500 in 1950
- Life expectancy77.1 years2023 · 58.0 years in 1950
- GDP per person$20,9412022
- Living in cities66%2025 · 14% in 1950
- Literacy99%2018
- Political regimeElectoral democracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNATO2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending1.9% of GDP2025
- War deathsNone2025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- France
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.