The early written records of the history of Montenegro begin with Illyria and its various kingdoms until the Roman Republic incorporated the region into the province of Illyricum (later Dalmatia and Praevalitana) after the Illyro-Roman Wars.
In the Early Middle Ages, Slavic migration led to several Slavic states. In the 9th century, there were three principalities on the territory of Montenegro: Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half, Travunia, the west, and Rascia, the north. In 1042, Stefan Vojislav led a revolt that resulted in the independence of Duklja and the establishment of the Vojislavljević dynasty. Duklja reached its zenith under Vojislav's son, Mihailo (1046–81), and his grandson Bodin (1081–1101). By the 13th century, Zeta had replaced Duklja when referring to the realm. In the late 14th century, southern Montenegro (Zeta) came under the rule of the Balšić noble family, then the Crnojević noble family, and by the 15th century, Zeta was more often referred to as Crna Gora (Venetian: ).
Large portions fell under the control of the Ottoman Empire from 1496 to 1878. Parts were controlled by the Republic of Venice. From 1516 until 1852 the prince-bishops (vladikas) of Cetinje were the rulers. The House of Petrović-Njegoš ruled until 1918. From 1918, it was a part of Yugoslavia. On the basis of an independence referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro declared independence on 3 June of that year.
Early history
Before the arrival of the Slavonic peoples in the Balkans during the 6th century AD, the area now known as Montenegro was inhabited principally by the Illyrians. During the Bronze Age, the Illirii, probably the southernmost Illyrian tribe of that time, that gave their name to the entire group were living near Skadar lake on the border of Albania and Montenegro and neighboring with the Greek tribes south.John Boardman. The prehistory of the Balkans and the Middle East and the Aegean world. Cambridge University Press, 1982. , p. 629Wilkes John. The Illyrians. Wiley-Blackwell, 1995, , p. 92 Along the seaboard of the Adriatic, the movement of peoples that was typical of the ancient Mediterranean world ensured the settlement of a mixture of colonists, traders, and those in search of territorial conquest. Substantial Greek colonies were established on the 6th and 7th centuries BC and Celts are known to have settled there in the 4th century BC. During the 3rd century BC, an indigenous Illyrian kingdom emerged with its capital at Scutari. The Romans mounted several punitive expeditions against local pirates and finally conquered the Illyrian kingdom in the 2nd century BC, annexing it to the province of Illyricum.
The division of the Roman Empire between Roman and Byzantine rule – and subsequently between the Latin and Greek churches – was marked by a line that ran northward from Shkodra through modern Montenegro, symbolizing the status of this region as a perpetual marginal zone between the economic, cultural, and political worlds of the Mediterranean. As Roman power declined, this part of the Dalmatian coast suffered from intermittent ravages by various semi-nomadic invaders, especially the Goths in the late 5th century and the Avars during the 6th century. These soon were supplanted by the Slavs, who became widely established in Dalmatia by the middle of the 7th century. Because the terrain was extremely rugged and lacked any major sources of wealth such as mineral riches, the area that is now Montenegro became a haven for residual groups of earlier settlers, including some tribes who had escaped Romanisation.
Middle Ages
In the second half of the 6th century, Slavs migrated from the Bay of Kotor to the River of Bojana and the hinterland of it as well as surround the Skadar lake. They formed the Principality of Doclea. Under the following missions of Cyril and Methodius, the population was Christianised. The Slavic tribes organised into a semi-independent dukedom of Duklja (Doclea) by the 9th century.
After facing subsequent Bulgarian domination, the people were split as the Doclean brother-archonts split the lands among each other after 900. Prince Časlav Klonimirović of the Serbian 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 Byzantine occupation through to the 11th century. The local ruler, Jovan Vladimir Dukljanski, whose cult still remains in the Orthodox Christian tradition, was at the time struggling to ensure independence.
Stefan Vojislav started an uprising against the Byzantine domination and gained a huge victory against the army of several Byzantine strategoi in Tudjemili (Bar) in 1042, which put to an end the Byzantine influence over the Doclea. In the 1054 Great Schism, the Doclea fell on the side of the Catholic Church. Bar became a Bishopric in 1067. In 1077, Pope Gregory VII recognised Duklja as an independent state, acknowledging its King Mihailo (Michael, of the Vojislavljević dynasty founded by nobleman Stefan Vojislav) as Rex Doclea (King of Duklja). Later on Mihailo sent his troops, led by his son Bodin, in 1072 to assist the uprising of Slavs in Macedonia. In 1082, after numerous pleas the Bar Bishopric of Bar was upgraded to an Archbishopric.
The expansions of the Kings of the Vojislavljević dynasty led to the control over the other Slavic lands, including Zahumlje, Bosnia and Rascia. The might of the Doclea declined and they generally became subjected to the Grand Princes of Rascia in the 12th century. Stefan Nemanja was born in 1117 in Ribnica (today Podgorica). In 1168, as the Serbian Grand Zhupan, Stefan Nemanja took Doclea. In charters of Vranjina Monastery during the 14th century the ethnic groups which are mentioned were Albanians (Arbanas), Vlahs, Latins (Catholic citizen) and Serbs.
Duklja (Zeta) within the Nemanjić State (1186–1360)
The region of Duklja (Zeta) was ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty from c. 1186 until c. 1360. In this period Zeta was administered by members of the Serbian royalty as a crown land.
Zeta under the Balšići (1360–1421)
The Principality of Zeta was ruled by the house of Balšić from c. 1356 until 1421.
Zeta within the Serbian Despotate (1421–1451)
After the death of Balša III, last representative of House of Balšić, Zeta joined the Serbian Despotate in 1421.
Zeta under the Crnojevići (1451–1496)
The Principality of Zeta was ruled by the house of Crnojević Dynasty from c. 1451 until 1496. It is believed that the name Crna Gora (Montenegro) originated during their rule. The Crnojevići were driven out from Zeta by the Ottomans and forced to retreat above the Gulf of Kotor where they built a monastery and a royal court in Cetinje, the future royal capital of Montenegro, before eventually fleeing to Venice. In 1496, Ottomans conquered Zeta and consolidated it into the newly established Sanjak of Montenegro, thereby ending its principality.
The Venetian coastal Montenegro
After the dramatic fall of the Western Roman Empire (476), the romanised Illyrians of the coast of Dalmatia survived the barbarian invasions of the Avars in the 6th century and were only nominally under the influence of the Slavs in the 7th and 8th centuries. In the last centuries of the first millennium, these Romanised Illyrians started to develop their own neo-Latin language, called Dalmatian language, around their small coastal villages that were growing with maritime commerce.
Venice started to take control of the southern Dalmatia around the 10th century, quickly assimilating the Dalmatian language with Venetian. By the 14th century the Republic of Venice was able to create a territorial continuity around the Bay of Kotor (Cattaro).
Early modern period
The Republic of Venice dominated the coasts of today's Montenegro from 1420 to 1797. In those four centuries the area around the Cattaro (Kotor) became part of Venetian Albania.
Struggle for maintaining independence (1496–1878)
Part of today's Montenegro, called Sandžak (which was not historically part of Montenegro until 1912), was under direct Ottoman control from 1498 to 1912, while westernmost part of coastal Montenegro was under Venetian control and the rest of Montenegro was autonomous from 1516, when Vladika Vavila was elected as ruler of Montenegro by its clans, and licensed by the Ottoman Empire it became a theocratic state and not secular. Only small town centers like Cetinje and Njegusi were controlled by Ottomans, but mountains and rural area were autonomous and controlled by several Montenegrin clans, which were warrior societies, but paying a special tax to the Ottoman Empire.Stephen Clissold (1966). A short history of Yugoslavia from earliest times to 1966, chapter III
In 1514, the Ottoman territory of Montenegro was proclaimed as a separate Sanjak of Montenegro, by the order of Sultan Beyazid II. The first Sanjak-beg (governor) who was chosen was Ivan Crnojević's son Staniša (Skenderbeg Crnojević), who converted to Islam, and governed until his death in 1528. Despite Skenderbeg's emphasized cruelty, the Ottomans did not have effective power in Montenegro. Vladika Vavil was elected in 1516 as Montenegrin prince-bishop by the Montenegrin people and the patriarch of Belgrade.
Elective Vladikas (1516–1696)
For 180 years after their first appointment, the Vladikas were elected by the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć and the clans — an arrangement which was ultimately abandoned in favour of the hereditary system in 1696. For most of this period the Montenegrin people were in constant struggle for its autonomy inside of the Ottoman Empire.
A pretender to Montenegrin throne, one of the Crnojević family who had converted to Islam, invaded Montenegro just as Staniša, thirty years before, and with the same result. Vukotić, the civil governor, repulsed the attack of Turks. Montenegrins, encouraged by the victory, besieged Jajce in modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the Hungarian garrison was closely hemmed in by the Ottoman army. The Turks were too much occupied with the Hungarian war to take revenge. The next Ottoman invasion of Montenegro took place in 1570.
The national historians are silent upon the subject of the Haraç (tax in Ottoman Empire), which the invaders are said to have exacted from the inhabitants of the free mountains. The refusal of high-spirited Montenegrin clans to pay tax any longer was the cause of the Pasha's invasion during the reign of the Hadjuk Bishop Rufim, when the Turks were driven back with heavy loss in Battle of Lješkopolje in 1604. About 1500 Montenegrin warriors attacked the Turkish camp on Lješkopolje field during the night, which counted 10.000 Ottoman soldiers.
In 1613, Arslan Pasha gathered army of over 40,000 men to attack part of Old Montenegro. Ottoman soldiers were twice as numerous as whole population of Old Montenegro. On 10 September the Montenegrins met the Turkish army, on the same spot Skenderbeg Crnojević was defeated nearly a century ago. The Montenegrins, although assisted by some neighbouring tribes, counted 4000 and were completely outnumbered. However, the Montenegrins managed to defeat the Turks. Arslan Pasha was wounded, and the heads of his second-in-command and a hundred other Turkish officers were carried off and stuck on the ramparts of Cetinje. The Ottoman troops retreated in disorder; many were drowned in the waters of the Morača. Others were killed by Montenegrin pursuers.