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Montenegro (meaning "Black Mountain" in Montenegrin) is a country located in Southeastern Europe . It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the south . Its capital and largest city is Podgorica , while Cetinje is designated as the Prijestonica , meaning the former Royal Capital City.

The thousand-year history of the Montenegrin state begins in the 9th century with the emergence of Duklja , a vassal state of Byzantium . In those formative years, Duklja was ruled by the Vojislavljevic dynasty . In 1042, at the end of his 25-year rule, King Vojislav won a decisive battle near Bar against Byzantium, and Duklja became independent. Duklja's power and prosperity reached their zenith under King Vojislav's son, King Mihailo (1046-81), and his son King Bodin (1081-1101). . From the 11th century, it started to be referred to as Zeta . It ended with its incorporation into Raska , and beginning with the Crnojevic dynasty, Zeta was more often referred to as Crna Gora or by the Venetian term monte negro . A sovereign principality since the Late Middle Ages , Montenegro saw its independence from the Ottoman Empire formally recognized in 1878. From 1918, it was a part of various incarnations of Yugoslavia . On the basis of a referendum held on 21 May 2006, Montenegro declared independence on 3 June.

Crna Gora , sometimes transliterated as Tsrna Gora ("Black Mountain"), is mentioned for the first time in 1296 by Serbian King Stefan Uros II Milutin in his edict to the Serbian Orthodox Zeta Episcopate seat at the Vranjina island in Lake Skadar from 1296 . The origin of the term lies in the Slavic reference to excessively mountainous regions, often emerging in the medieval Serbian realm . Mentioned afterwards in most House of Nemanjic 's edicts and in subsequent Venetian sources in the 13th and 14th centuries, signifying the area of the Upper Zeta , the name stabilized itself for a Principality in the second half of the 15th century under Lord Ivan Crnojevic , mostly confounding erroneously the term with the dynasty's name, which both have similar roots. The region itself became remembered as Old Montenegro as by the 19th century the The Highlands were added to the state, and Montenegro further increased its size several times by the 20th century during wars against the Ottomans, expanding its name to and annexing Old Herzegovina and parts of Old Serbia , most notably Metohija and southern Rashka . The state changed little to modern day reference, losing Metohija and gaining the Bay of Kotor . The name of the region gave the name to its people, the Montenegrins.

The country's name in most Western European languages, including English, reflects an adoption of the Italian - Venetian term monte negro , meaning "black mount", which probably dates back to the era of Venetian hegemony over the area in the Middle Ages . Other languages, particularly nearby ones, use their own direct translation of the term "black mountain" . 黑山

The ISO Alpha-2 code for Montenegro is ME and the Alpha-3 Code is MNE.

The first recorded settlers of present-day Montenegro were Illyrians , the Docleata. In 9 AD the Romans conquered the region of present-day Montenegro. Slavs massively colonized the area in the 5th and 6th centuries, forming a semi-independent principality, Duklja , that was involved in Balkan medieval politics with ties to Rascia and Byzantium and to a lesser extent Bulgaria .

Duklja gained its independence from the Byzantine Empire in 1042. In the next few decades Duklja expanded its territory to the neighbouring Rascia and Bosnia and also became recognised as a kingdom. Its power started declining at the ending of the 11th century and by 1186, it was conquered by Stefan Nemanja and incorporated into Serbian realm . The newly acquired land, then called Zeta, was governed by the Serbian Nemanjic dynasty. After the Serbian Empire collapsed in the second half of the 14th century, another family came to prominence by expanding their power in the region, the Balšićs . In 1421 it was annexed to the Serbian Despotate , but after 1455 another noble family from Zeta, the Crnojevićs , ruled Montenegro. They were to rule Montenegro until 1499 , making it the last free monarchy of the Balkans before it fell to the Ottomans , who annexed it to the sanjak of Skadar . For a short time Montenegro existed as a separate autonomous sanjak in 1514–1528, another version of which existed again some time between 1597 and 1614.

In the 16th century Montenegro developed a form of special and unique autonomy within the Ottoman Empire : the local Montenegrin clans were also free of many bonds due to Montenegro's autonomy. Nevertheless the Montenegrins refused to accept Ottoman reign and in the 17th century raised numerous rebellions, culminating with the Ottoman defeat in the Great Turkish War at the end of that century. Montenegro became a theocracy led by the Montenegrin Orthodox Metropolitans , flourishing since the Petrović-Njegoš became the traditional Prince-Bishops (whose title was "Vladika of Montenegro"). The Venetian Republic introduced governors that meddled in Montenegrin politics; when the republic was succeeded by the Austrian Empire in 1797, the governors were abolished by Prince-Bishop Petar II in 1832. His predecessor Petar I contributed to the unification of Montenegro with the Highlands. Under Nicholas I , the Principality of Montenegro vastly advanced and enlarged several times in the Montenegro-Turkish Wars and achieved recognition of independence in 1878. Modernization of the state followed, culminating with the draft of a Constitution in 1905. Political rifts for the first time emerged between the reigning People's Party that supported democratization of the ruler's autocratic regime and unconditional union with Serbia and the minor pro-monarch True People's Party . In 1910 Montenegro became a Kingdom . It initiated the Balkan wars in 1912 and 1913 in which the Ottomans lost all lands in the Balkans, achieving a common border with Serbia, but the Skadar was awarded to a newly created Albania . In World War I in 1914 Montenegro sided with Serbia against the Central Powers , suffering a full scale defeat to Austria-Hungary in early 1916. In 1918 the Allies liberated Montenegro, which was subsequently merged with Serbia. In 1904 Montenegro declared war on Japan in support of Russia . However, Montenegro inexplicably failed to adhere to the Treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 and so remained at war with Japan until 1918, although no hostilities occurred.

Montenegro is well suited for development of all kinds of tourism, as it has both a picturesque coast and a mountainous northern region. The country was a well-known tourist spot in the 1980s, yet, the Yugoslav wars that were fought in neighboring countries during the 1990s crippled the tourist industry and destroyed the image of Montenegro as a tourist destination.

It was not until 2000s that the tourism industry began to recover, and the country has since experienced a high rate of growth in the number of tourist visits and overnight stays. The Government of Montenegro has set the development of Montenegro as an elite tourist destination a top priority. It is a national strategy to make tourism a major, if not the single largest, contributor to the Montenegrin economy. A number of steps were taken to attract foreign investors into Montenegro's tourism industry. Some large projects are already under way, such as Porto Montenegro , while other locations, like Jaz Beach , Buljarica , Velika Plaza and Ada Bojana , have perhaps the greatest potential to attract future investments and become premium tourist spots on the Adriatic . Some of the problems that currently hamper the development of Montenegrin tourism are inadequate infrastructure, notably the road infrastructure in the north, and electricity and water supply in the south of the country. The informal construction is also a problem.