Historically, the Montenegrin nation comprised manytribes. Most tribes formed in the 15th and 16th centuries, about the time when theOttoman Empire established its control of the medieval state ofZeta. Today, the tribes are mainly studied within the frameworks ofsocial anthropology andfamily history, as they have not been used in official structures since the time (1852-1910) of thePrincipality of Montenegro; however, some tribal regions overlap with contemporary municipal areas. The kinship groups give a sense of shared identity and descent.[26]
Outside ofMontenegro andEurope, Montenegrins formdiaspora groups in (for example) theUnited States,Canada,Australia andArgentina. It is estimated that around 600,000 Montenegrin-descended people reside outside of Montenegro.[27][28] In 2023 a total of 152,649 Montenegrins both held Montenegrin citizenship and resided outside of Montenegro.
According to one triple analysis –autosomal,mitochondrial andpaternal — of available data from large-scale studies on South Slavs and their proximal populations, the whole genomeSNP data situates Montenegrins withSerbs in between two Balkan clusters.[29] According to a 2020 autosomal marker analysis, Montenegrins are situated in betweenSerbs andKosovo Albanians.[30]
Y-DNA genetic study done in 2010 on 404 male individuals from Montenegro gave the following results: haplogroupI2a (29.7%),E-V13 (26.9%),R1b (9.4%),R1a (7.6%),I1 (6.1%),J2a1 (4.7%),J2b (4.4%),G2a (2.4%),Q (1.9%),I2b (1.7%),N (1.4%),H (1.4%),L (1.2%), andJ1 (0.49%).[31] A 2022 study on 267 samples from northeastern Montenegro found that the "most common haplogroups are I2 and R1b, both identified in 23.97% of samples, followed by E (22.47%), J2 (11.61%), I1 (6.74%), G2 (3.75%), R1a (3.37%), I1 (1.12%), G (1.12%), N (0.75%), C (0.37%), T1 (0.37%) and Q1 (0.37%)".[32]
Slavs settled in the Balkans during the sixth and seventh centuries. According toDe Administrando Imperio, there existed threeSerb polities on the territory of modern Montenegro:Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half;Travunia, the west; and thePrincipality of Serbia, the north. Duklja emerged as an independent state during the 11th century, initially held by theVojislavljević dynasty; it was conquered and incorporated into the state of theNemanjić dynasty.De Administrando Imperio does not mention which Slavic people lived in Duklja,[33] but the state was considered to be one of the firstSerb states, alongside Raška formed chiefly under theVlastimirović andVojislavljević dynasties respectively.[34][35]
In the late 14th century, southern Montenegro (Zeta) came under the rule of theBalšić noble family, then theCrnojević noble family; by the 15th century, Zeta was more often referred to asCrna Gora (Venetian:Monte Negro). The Crnojevići were driven out from Zeta by the Ottomans and forced to retreat above theBay of Kotor where they built a monastery and a royal court inCetinje, the future royal capital of Montenegro, before eventually fleeing to Venice.[36]
Annexation of theKingdom of Montenegro on 13 November 1918 gained international recognition at the Conference of Ambassadors inParis, held on 13 July 1922.[37]
Although Montenegrins comprised one of the smallest ethnic groups in the state (2.5% in 1971), they were the most overrepresented ethnic group in the Yugoslav bureaucracy, military, and communist party organs. In theYugoslav People's Army, 19% of general officers and 30% of colonels were ethnic Montenegrins. Among party elites, Montenegrins made up 16% to 21% of senior officials throughout the existence of communist Yugoslavia, and comprised a similar portion of the state's diplomatic corps.[38][39] Montenegrins were over-represented among Yugoslavia's elite, largely due to the pre-war strength of theCommunist Party of Montenegro, the high proportion of Montenegrins among Partisan commanders and Central Committee members during the war, and a historically militaristic culture.[40][41] During this period, ethnic Montenegrins also held about 15% of government jobs in Yugoslavia.[42]
In the census held in 2023, 71.4% of ethnic Montenegrins in Montenegro declaredMontenegrin as their native language, 22.9%Serbian and 2.9% indicatedSerbo-Croatian.[43]
^The termMontenegrins in a wider sense can also be used to denote all the peoples fromMontenegro (population of 623,633), regardless of their ethnic and religious affiliation.
^"Montenegro Crna Gora Montenegro".2013 Census.Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved26 March 2018. Total responses: 25,451,383 for total count of persons: 19,855,288.
^Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus, Emperor of the East (1967).De administrando imperio. Gyula Moravcsik (New, rev. ed.). Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies.ISBN0-88402-021-5.OCLC11970692.
^Yugoslavia From "National Communism" to National Collapse: US Intelligence Community Estimative Products on Yugoslavia, 1948-1990. Government Printing Office. 2007. p. 605.ISBN978-0-16-087360-7.
^Lampe, John (2000).Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country. Cambridge University Press. p. 252-253.ISBN0-521-77401-2.
^Austin, Robert (2019).Making and Remaking the Balkans: Nations and States since 1878. University of Toronto Press. p. 58.ISBN978-1-4875-3072-3.
^Petersen, Roger (2011).Western Intervention in the Balkans: The Strategic Use of Emotion in Conflict. Cambridge University Press. p. 274.ISBN978-1-139-50330-3.
^Morrock, Richard (2014).The Psychology of Genocide and Violent Oppression: A Study of Mass Cruelty from Nazi Germany to Rwanda. McFarland. p. 54.ISBN978-0-7864-5628-4.
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