Old Montenegro

For other uses, see Montenegro (disambiguation).
Regions of Old Montenegro and the Highlands (Brda) tribes in 1862.
Expansion of Montenegro: the region of Old Montenegro represented in the darkest shade (18th century)
Historical map of the Old Montenegro region, and its divisions
Coronelli Map of the Skadar Lake region, including the Old Montenegro (1690)

Old Montenegro (Montenegrin: Стара Црна Гора, Stara Crna Gora),[1][2][3] also known as Montenegro proper (Montenegrin: Права Црна Гора, Prava Crna Gora),[4][5] or True Montenegro (Montenegrin: Истинска Црна Гора, Istinska Crna Gora),[6][7] is a term used for the embryonic part of modern Montenegro. In historical context, the term designates the original territory of the Principality of Montenegro, before the territorial expansion, ratified by the Congress of Berlin in 1878, or even more precisely - the territory of the Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro prior to its unification with the region of Brda in the first half of the 19th century.[8][4]

During the Ottoman period, from the 16th up to the 18th century, the original (proper) Montenegro was made up of the Montenegrin tribes (Montenegrin Cyrillic: црногорска племена), traditionally divided into four territorial units, or nahije: Katun, Rijeka, Lješanska nahija and Crmnica. Their inhabitants were known under the regional demonym Montenegrins (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Црногорци), as opposed to the inhabitants of neighboring regions (Brđani, Hercegovci and Primorci). Since the end of the 18th century, Montenegro started to expand, incorporating the region of Brda in the first half of the 19th century, the region of Old Herzegovina and part of Primorje in 1878, and finally upper and central Polimlje and northern Metohija in 1912.[9]

  1. ^ Ердељановић 1926.
  2. ^ Радусиновић 1985a.
  3. ^ Радусиновић 1985b.
  4. ^ a b Banac 1992, p. 271.
  5. ^ Fleming 2002, p. 56.
  6. ^ Brown 1954, p. 101.
  7. ^ Bećković 2005, p. 53.
  8. ^ Denton 1877, p. 52.
  9. ^ Ćirković 2004.