The Republic of Venice has dominated the…
1516 CE to 1527 CE
The Republic of Venice has dominated the coasts of today's Montenegro from 1420.
The area around Cattaro (Kotor) has become part of Venetinan Albania.
Zeta, which had emerged as an independent Serban principality after the death of Stefan Dusan in 1355, has waged continual guerrilla war on the Ottomans.
It had been annexed in 1421 to the Serbian Despotate but after 1455 another noble family from Zeta, the Crnojevićs, became sovereign rulers of the country, making it the last free monarchy of the Balkans before it fell in 1496 to the Ottomans, and became annexed to the sanjak of Shkodër.
The small country has never been conquered, but the Turkish threat had forced its Prince Ivan to move his capital high into the mountains, where he has founded a monastery and set up a printing press.
The first Sanjak-beg (governor) is Ivan Crnojević's son Staniša (Skenderbeg Crnojević), who converts to Islam, and governs until 1528.
Zeta during the reign of Crnojevićs becomes known under its current name—Montenegro.
Only small town centers are controlled by Ottomans, while the mountains and rural areas are de facto independent and controlled by Montenegrin clans ruled by chieftains, who also are military leaders.
All clan leaders meet up several times a year at the Zbor (assembly) in Cetinje, Montenegrin capital, to make decisions of importance for nation, to solve blood feuds and to declare wars.