One of the pleasures of traveling to a place we’ve never been is learning its history and culture. For Montenegrin history we had only the haziest sense of the place before arriving. Being classicists, we knew that the area had been called Illyria by the Greeks and Romans. We also knew some things about the Illyrian warrior queen Teuta. And that the Roman province of Dalmatia had its southern border right where we are living, the Bay of Kotor. But as often, our knowledge of history gets a lot weaker after the fall of the Roman empire!
It was not, however, the Greeks and Romans who determined the subsequent history of this region. Instead, it was the Slavs, a people who arrived in the late 5th/early 6th century BCE in the wake of the invasions and migrations throughout Europe. By the 7th century the Slavs had settled lands reaching to the Adriatic. Then the first Slavic kingdoms began to arise.
In medieval times three principalities occupied most of present-day Montenegro. In the south (our part) Duklja reached the height of its power at the end of the 11th century. Infighting among the nobility weakened the principalities. So much so that towards the end of the 12th century Montenegro became part of the Serbian Empire. That empire in turn collapsed in 1371, and various noble families took control of the area.
And here’s where Montenegrin history gets even more complicated! The Venetian Republic controlled some areas of Montenegro, notably around the Bay of Kotor, for nearly 400 years (ca. 1392-1797). Indeed, the walls that still stand today in Kotor were built by the Venetians. Other parts came under the sway of the Ottoman Empire from 1496 until the Great Turkish War (1683-1699) gave Montenegro de facto independence. But it was only in 1858, at the Battle of Grahovac, where a Montenegrin army defeated a Turkish army twice its size, that independence was formally recognised. The Treaty of Berlin in 1878, confirmed this, following on from the defeat of the Turks by the Russians in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878.
Montenegro had a constitution from 1855 and its first king, Nicholas I, ruled from 1860. The country became a constitutional monarchy in 1910 (though Nicholas ruled with the proverbial iron fist). It was on the side of the allies in World War I. At the Battle of Mojkovac in 1916 the Montenegrins won a victory against an army five times their size, but could not ultimately defeat the Austro-Hungarians. The forces of the Austro-Hungarian empire occupied Montenegro from 1916 to the end of the war in 1918. During this time, King Nicholas himself escaped, and formed a government-in-exile in Bordeaux, France. (We are considering doing the same…)
(The date above the arch is that of the city’s liberation from the Nazis.)
But he was never to return. At the end of World War I, Montenegrins voted to join their country to Serbia, and almost immediately Serbia and Montenegro merged with the former territories ruled by Austria-Hungary to form the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. This nation renamed itself Yugoslavia in 1929.
We’ve had a good time reading up on all this Montenegrin history. Even though the numerous peoples and kingdoms occasionally make our head swim. As you can see from even this brief outline, conflict among the various groups both inside and outside has led to numerous wars and changes of leadership. Also – importantly, from our perspective – interesting food traditions! And after 1929 things really heat up; we’ll take up the subsequent history of Montenegro in a later post.
To make sure you don’t miss a single moment of meandering, minimal, magic, why not sign up for our fortnightly newsletter?
