The Rising of the Montenegro Government: Ottoman-Montenegro Border Determination (1858-60)

Abstract

Until 1850s, Montenegro was a place unknown to anybody in which the savage tribes lived in. But after this date, the Great States (England, France, Russia, Prussia, Austria-Hungary), which formed the habit of interfering with internal affairs of Ottoman Empire, gradually started to be interested in Montenegro. Unceasing battle news from the region and usage of Montenegro as a logistic base for continuous riots in Bosnia resulted in the idea of determination of the borders between the parties in 1857. According to the great states, the battles would be ended if the lands on which the Montenegrins claimed were given to them. However, Ottomans believed that the Montenegro attacks were caused by poverty, and they would be terminated if Montenegro was given some piece of land to cultivate. When all the parties agreed on this opinion, they started to work on this in 1858. However, this attempt almost turned into defining borders of two independent governments, in contrast to Ottomans' thoughts. Eventually, lots of commissions have been set up and the borders were defined after working for approximately 2.5 years. The results were not in favor of Ottoman Government. On the contrary, the new borders caused conflict in many places and therefore induced further battles. But when the battles ended, Montenegrins had lands with established borders which they would call as theirs and they would add new lands to these ones until 1913.