Montenegro

Facts & Figures

Map of Montenegro

President: Filip Vujanovic (2003)

Prime Minister: Igor Luksic (2010)

Land area: 5,333 sq mi (13,812 sq km); total area: 5,415 sq mi (14,026 sq km)

Population (2010 est.): 666,730 (growth rate: –0.7%); birth rate: 11.0/1000; infant mortality rate: NA; life expectancy: NA; density per sq km: 49

Capital (1991 est.): Podgorica (administrative capital), 117,875; Cetinje (capital city), 14,700

Other large cities (1991): Nikšić, 56,141; Kotor, 5,620

Monetary unit: Euro

More Facts & Figures

Index

Montenegro Main Page
Independence Is Declared

Geography

Montenegro, a jumbled mass of mountains, with a small coastline along the Adriatic, borders Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. It is roughly the size of Connecticut.

Government

Republic. Montenegro, formerly part of Serbia and Montenegro, gained independence on June 3, 2006.

History

The first inhabitants on the Balkan peninsula were the ancient people known as the Illyrians. The Slavic people followed in the 6th and 7th centuries. What is now Montenegro was the Serbian principality of Zeta in the 14th century. The principality was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire from the 14th to the 19th century, though this mountainous region managed to evade tight Ottoman control. It then became a principality within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and in 1878 achieved independence. In 1910, Prince Nicholas I proclaimed himself king. During World War I, Montenegro fought on the side of the Allies and was defeated by Austro-German forces. Nicholas was forced to flee the country and Montenegro was annexed to Serbia, then called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. After World War II, Yugoslavia became a Communist republic under Josip Tito. Tito's tight rein kept ethnic tensions in check until his death in 1980. Without his pan-Slavic influence, ethnic and nationalist differences began to flare, and by the 1990s Yugoslavia started to disintegrate in a brutal ten-year civil war. In the war's aftermath, Serbia and Montenegro were the only two remaining republics of Yugoslavia, and in Feb. 2003, they formed a new state, a loose federation called Serbia and Montenegro. The arrangement was made to placate Montenegro's restive stirrings for independence and stipulated that Montenegro could hold a referendum on independence after three years. In May 2003, Filip Vujanovic, a strong advocate of Montenegrin independence, was elected Montenegro's president.