Podgorica Assembly

The Great National Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro (Serbian: Велика народна скупштина Српског Народа у Црној Гори/Velika narodna skupština Srpskog Naroda u Crnoj Gori), known as the Podgorica Assembly (Подгоричка скупштина/Podgorička skupština), was an assembly of the representative body of the Montenegrin people (the Kingdom of Montenegro) in November 1918, after World War I, that was to decide whether Montenegro was to unite with the Kingdom of Serbia. It was organized by a Serbian government committee. The two sides were known as the "Greens" and the "Whites", in favour of a confederation (independence) and unification (annexation), respectively. The assembly concluded the decision to merge Montenegro with Serbia. The creation of Yugoslavia followed.

The Montenegrin government capitulated to the forces of Austria-Hungary on 6 January 1916 during The Great War. King Nicholas I refused to sign capitulation and left the country to allied Italy where his daughter was married to the king. On 17 July 1917 the Yugoslav Committee and the Government of the Kingdom of Serbia signed the Corfu Declaration, which, accepted by the Great Allied Powers, laid the foundations for a South Slavic state. In 1918 the Serbian Royal Army took control of Montenegro from the Central Powers' occupation; Allied mission of Serbia, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the United States were assigned to provisionally occupy and establish control over Montenegro.

Montenegro was planning and preparing unification with Serbia for more than 50 years with the wish of Nikola I to become a ruler of the united state. This project had failed in 1903, after which the population became divided in political blocks, for a united state (Serbia) or for confederation (Serbia and Montenegro). The last negotiations between Montenegro and Serbia started shortly before World War I in 1914 about military, economic and foreign affairs. The most important disagreement point during the last negotiations was the position of Montenegro in the union: as an equal partner to Serbia or as a province of Serbia. In Montenegro the strongest supporter of unconditional union was later prime minister Andrija Radović, titled by the Serbian government which had been working on annexation of Montenegro from 1866. Since the beginning of October 1918, various initiatives were raised to formalize unification with the war drawing to a close. Even Nicholas I gave support to new united Yugoslav confederation but this position was still against Belgrade's wish of united state. Various tiny assemblies in territory controlled by the Serbian army were organized similar to the ones in the former Austro-Hungarian lands.

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Wikipedia