Creation of Yugoslavia - Kingdom of Serbia - Montenegro

Montenegro

Main article: Podgorica Assembly See also: Kingdom of Montenegro

Montenegro was originally created by the national-romantic desire of liberation and unification of all Serbs into one state – a Greater Serbia – and remained conservative in its ideology as compared with the other parts of the future Yugoslavia. In 1848 Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrović-Njegoš accepted the Zagreb-inspired proposal of the Serbian government to create a common state of all southern Slavs known as "Yugoslavia" and cooperated on the matter, but requested first a unification of the Serbs unification and later one with Bulgarians and Croats. In 1907 parliamentarism was born in Montenegro, and the first political party, the People's Party, expressed the need to cooperate and bond with other Slavic peoples, along with Serbian national unification and liberation. Entering gradually into periods of cold relations with Serbia and disappointed that he and his country had lost the primate in the Serb revolution, HRH Nicholas I of Montenegro accepted union with Serbia and in 1914 initiated the process, which was however interrupted by World War I; he also accepted the idea of a Yugoslavian realm.

Shortly after entering the war on the side of Serbia to support escape of Serbian army toward Greece, the Kingdom of Montenegro was occupied by Austro-Hungarian military forces in early 1916. During exile Serbia and all other Allied powers recognised the King's government-in-exile as the government of Montenegro. In the spring of 1916 the King proclaimed Andrija Radović as prime minister, but he resignes a few months after his proposal of union with Serbia was rejected. He created in 1917 the National Committee for Unification with Serbia, which found support from Nikola Pašić's Serbian Government. In 1918 the Allies took control of Montenegro and mandated a common mission for its occupation. On 15 October 1918 the Government of Serbia named a "Central Executive Committee for Unification of Serbia and Montenegro" that would organize the process of unification. Ten days later the Committee decided to schedule a nation-wide election with new election laws.

With this decision against the Montenegrin constitution, the committee created by Serbia had abolished the Montenegrin parliament and reversed the order of the King for a session of the parliament on first day after an armistice was signed. The official reason for this decision was that 2/5 of the parliament members were abroad, making it necessary to elect new ones. An election was held without a list of eligible voters, and the vote was reportedly controlled by officials from Serbia. The Podgorica Assembly (formally the Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro) elected in that way and encircled by detachments of the Serbian army decided on 26 November 1918 to dethrone the King and the House of Petrovic-Njegos in favor of the House of Karadjordjevic and to unite with Serbia, pending a common state of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

The Podgorica Assembly elected a provisional executive body known as the "Montenegrin Committee for Unity with Serbia" under Marko Daković which oversaw Montenegro's integration, until the SCS's government took over on 23 April 1919. The Assembly also elected its share of representatives into the Provisional National Representorship of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Reaction to these events escalated in early 1919 into the Christmas Uprising by opponents of annexation. International leaders opposed the uprising and the Serbian forces violently quelled the rebellion.