An Overview of Political, Diplomatic and Social Affairs in Montenegro on the Eve of the First World War

Abstract

The military circles of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy knew Montenegro was exhausted in the Balkan wars and that it was incapable of war, unless it received help and reorganized its army. In February 1914, prominent deputies in the Montenegrin National Assembly pointed out the danger of the impending ‘because the atmosphere smelled like gunpowder’. During this period, numerous Serbs from Boka and Bosnia and Herzegovina fled to Montenegro because they refused to fall into the hands of the Austro-Hungarian authorities and be tortured. Montenegro approached the Entente in the First World War, fought alongside Serbia against the Austro-Hungarian army and mobilized about 54,000 people. It declared war on Austria-Hungary on 6 August 1914.