Montenegro

Montenegro, is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea and borders Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Albania.

A South-Slavic principality in the Late Middle Ages, Montenegro fully incorporated into a Serbian realm by the end of the 12th century and was under Serbian control for next 300 year. Montenegro fell to the Ottomans in 1499, independence from the Ottoman Empire was formally recognized in 1878. From 1918, Montenegro became a part of various incarnations of Yugoslavia.

In World War II Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis forces in 1941, who established a puppet Independent State of Montenegro, liberated by the Yugoslav Partisans in 1944. Montenegro became a constituent republic of the communist Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. More and more autonomy was established, until the Socialist Republic of Montenegro ratified a new constitution 1974.

After the dissolution of the Yugoslavia in 1992, Montenegro remained part of a smaller Federal Republic of Yugoslavia along with Serbia.

In 2002, Serbia and Montenegro came to a new agreement regarding continued cooperation and entered into negotiations regarding the future status of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 2003, the Yugoslav federation was replaced in favor of a looser state union named Serbia and Montenegro. Three years later, a referendum was held on May 21, 2006, Montenegro declared independence on June 3, 2006. On June 28, 2006, it became the 192nd member state of the United Nations.