Montenegro is a country in Southeastern Europe , on the Balkan Peninsula. It is bordered by Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, Croatia to the west, and has a coastline along the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. Before the arrival of the Slav peoples in the Balkans in the 6th and 7th centuries CE, the area now known as Montenegro was inhabited principally by people known as Illyrians.
During the Early Medieval period, three principalities were located on the territory of modern-day Montenegro: Duklja , roughly corresponding to the southern half; Travunia , the west; and Rascia proper, the north. From the late 14th century to the late 18th century, large parts of southern Montenegro were ruled by the Venetian Republic and incorporated into Venetian Albania.
Montenegro's independence was recognised by the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin in In , the country became a kingdom. After World War I , the kingdom became part of Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia , the republics of Serbia and Montenegro together proclaimed a federation.
In June Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia and Montenegro following an independence referendum , creating Montenegro and Serbia as they exist today. Montenegro has an upper-middle-income economy , mostly service-based , and is in late transition to a market economy.
Modern-day Montenegro was more and more known by that name in the historical period following the fall of the Serbian Despotate in Its borders have changed little since then, losing Metohija and gaining the Bay of Kotor. Since 22 October , a year after its independence, the name of the country became simply known as Montenegro.
