14 ATLASES
History of Montenegro in maps
Montenegro as it appears in 14 interactive history atlases, from 264 BC to 2015: Illyricum, Zeta, Montenegro, Yugoslavia. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
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What was Montenegro before it was Montenegro? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Illyricum (mod. Montenegro) · Ancient Rome
| 264 BC | Tribal peoples & confederations — the opening position |
| Roman territory |
ANCIENT ROME: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Montenegro · Norse and Aztecs
| Other peoples and states — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Zeta (mod. Montenegro) · Crusades
| Byzantium (and Latin Constantinople 1204–61) — the opening position |
CRUSADES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Zeta (mod. Montenegro) · Mongol Empire
| Other settled powers (Jin China, Christendom, Delhi) — the opening position |
MONGOL EMPIRE: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Montenegro · Industrial Revolution
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Montenegro · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Yugoslavia (Montenegro) · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Non-aligned or stateless — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Montenegro · WWI
Serbia’s tiny ally Montenegro fought from the first week and covered the Serbian retreat at Mojkovac in January 1916 before occupation. King Nikola, Europe’s only reigning monarch to flee into exile and never return, was deposed in absentia by the disputed Podgorica Assembly in November 1918. Under Allied eyes, the assembly voted for union with Serbia; armed “Greens” resisted the annexation into the 1920s. Absorbed into Yugoslavia, Montenegro was the only Allied state to disappear by winning.
Yugoslavia (Montenegro) · Stalin’s Soviet Union
Tito’s partisans fought German occupiers and their local allies from 1941 and took power in 1945 with little help from the Red Army. Yugoslavia had liberated itself, which helps explain why Tito could defy Moscow. He was initially more radical than Stalin wished, yet refused to take orders. Yugoslavia was expelled from the Cominform in June 1948. It survived Soviet pressure, accepted Western aid and built its own non-aligned communism, opening the first crack in the Soviet bloc.
| Nazi Germany & its allies — the opening position | |
| Nazi Germany & its allies | |
| Satellites & communist allies | |
| Other states |
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Montenegro · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position | |
| Occupied — held by force |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Montenegro · WW2
| Axis-occupied — the opening position | |
| Axis-occupied | |
| Soviet Union |
Montenegro · Cold War
| Soviet-aligned states — the opening position | |
| Communist, outside Moscow’s bloc | |
| In upheaval / changing sides | |
| Communist, outside Moscow’s bloc | |
| In upheaval / changing sides |
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Yugoslavia (Montenegro) · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Refused: women excluded; ERA never ratified — the opening position | |
| Right won in law | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Yugoslavia (Montenegro) · Refugee crises
| Soviet-occupied or communist — the opening position |
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
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