Editing History of Montenegro (section)

==Early modern period==
{{main|Cretan War (1645–69)|Morean War|Great Turkish War}}
The Republic of Venice dominated the coasts of today's Montenegro from 1420 to 1797. In those four centuries the area around the [[Cattaro]] (Kotor) became part of [[Venetian Albania]].
[[File:South-eastern Europe 1672.jpg|thumb|right|Map of south-eastern Europe ca. 1670, Montenegro is represented in purple dot]]

==={{Anchor|Ottoman Empire}}Struggle for maintaining independence (1496–1878)<!--'Struggle for maintaining independence' redirects here-->===
{{main|Serb uprising of 1596–97|Montenegro Vilayet|Metropolitanate of Montenegro}}
Part of today's Montenegro, called [[Sandžak]] (which was not historically part of Montenegro until 1912), was under direct [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] control from 1498 to 1912, while westernmost part of [[Montenegrin Littoral|coastal Montenegro]] was under [[Republic of Venice|Venetian]] control and the rest of Montenegro was autonomous from 1516, when ''Vladika'' [[Vavila, Metropolitan of Zeta|Vavila]] was elected as ruler of Montenegro by its clans, and licensed by the [[Ottoman Empire]] it became a [[Theocracy|theocratic state]] and not secular. Only small town centers like [[Cetinje]] and [[Njegusi]] were controlled by Ottomans, but mountains and rural area were autonomous and controlled by several Montenegrin clans, which were warrior societies, but paying a special tax to the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="Stephen Clissold 1966">Stephen Clissold (1966). ''A short history of Yugoslavia from earliest times to 1966'', chapter III</ref>

In 1514, the Ottoman territory of Montenegro was proclaimed as a separate [[Sanjak of Montenegro]], by the order of [[Beyazid II|Sultan Beyazid II]]. The first [[Sanjakbeg|Sanjak-beg]] (governor) who was chosen was [[Ivan Crnojević]]'s son Staniša ([[Skenderbeg Crnojević]]), who converted to [[Islam]], and governed until his death in 1528. Despite Skenderbeg's emphasized cruelty, the Ottomans did not have effective power in Montenegro. ''Vladika'' Vavil was elected in 1516 as Montenegrin prince-bishop by the Montenegrin people and the patriarch of [[Belgrade]]. 
[[File:Montenegrins from Chevo clan march to battle.jpg|thumb|left|Warriors from Chevo clan marching to battle.]]

==== Elective Vladikas (1516–1696) ====
{{main|Prince-Bishopric of Montenegro}}

For 180 years after their first appointment, the Vladikas were elected by the [[Serbian Patriarchate of Peć]] and the clans — an arrangement which was ultimately abandoned in favour of the hereditary system in 1696. For most of this period the Montenegrin people were in constant struggle for its autonomy inside of the Ottoman Empire .

A pretender to Montenegrin throne, one of the [[Crnojević noble family|Crnojević]] family who had converted to [[Islam]], invaded Montenegro just as [[Skenderbeg Crnojević|Staniša]], thirty years before, and with the same result. Vukotić, the civil governor, repulsed the attack of Turks. Montenegrins, encouraged by the victory, besieged [[Jajce]] in modern-day [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], where the Hungarian garrison was closely hemmed in by the Ottoman army. The Turks were too much occupied with the Hungarian war to take revenge. The next Ottoman invasion of Montenegro took place in 1570.
[[File:Bajo Pivljanin ubija Turčina.jpg|thumb|Montenegrin leader [[Bajo Pivljanin]] decapitates Turkish officer.]]
The national historians are silent upon the subject of the [[Haraç]] (tax in Ottoman Empire), which the invaders are said to have exacted from the inhabitants of the free mountains. The refusal of high-spirited Montenegrin clans to pay tax any longer was the cause of the Pasha's invasion during the reign of the [[Hajduk|Hadjuk]] [[Rufim Njeguš|Bishop Rufim]], when the Turks were driven back with heavy loss in [[Battle of Lješkopolje]] in 1604. About 1500 Montenegrin warriors attacked the Turkish camp on Lješkopolje field during the night, which counted 10.000 Ottoman soldiers.

In 1613, Arslan Pasha gathered army of over 40,000 men to attack part of [[Old Montenegro]]. Ottoman soldiers were twice as numerous as whole population of Old Montenegro. On 10 September the Montenegrins met the Turkish army, on the same spot Skenderbeg Crnojević was defeated nearly a century ago . The Montenegrins, although assisted by some neighbouring tribes, counted 4000 and were completely outnumbered. However, the Montenegrins managed to defeat the Turks. Arslan Pasha was wounded, and the heads of his second-in-command and a hundred other Turkish officers were carried off and stuck on the ramparts of Cetinje. The Ottoman troops retreated in disorder; many were drowned in the waters of the [[Morača]]. Others were killed by Montenegrin pursuers.

Much light is thrown upon the condition of Montenegro at this period and the causes of its invariable success in war even against fearful odds are explained by the accounts of a contemporary writer, Mariano Bolizza. This author, a patrician of Venice, residing at [[Kotor]] in the early part of the seventeenth century, spent a considerable time in the [[Old Montenegro]], and published in 1614 a description of [[Cetinje]]. At the time, the whole male population of Cetinje available for war consisted of 8,027 persons, distributed among ninety-three villages.

The condition of the country at this period was naturally unsettled. War was the chief occupation of its inhabitants from sheer necessity, and the arts of peace languished. The printing-press, so active a century earlier, had ceased to exist; the control of the Prince-Bishop over the five ''nahije'' ({{Singular abbr|''nahija''}}, from the [[Turkish language|Turkish]] ''[[nahiyah]]'', i.e. "district"), which then composed the principality, was weak; the capital itself consisted of only a few houses. Still, there was a system of local government. Each ''nahija'' was divided into [[Tribes of Montenegro|tribes]] ({{lang-sr-lat|plemena}}), each presided over by a chief ({{lang-sr-lat|knez}}), who acted as a judge in disputes between the tribesmen.<ref>Stephen Clissold (1966). ''A short history of Yugoslavia from earliest times to 1966''</ref>