Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro (Serbo-Croatian: Србија и Црна Гора/Srbija i Crna Gora), whose official name was Union State of Serbia and Montenegro, was a European state located on the Balkan Peninsula, made up of the republics of Serbia and Montenegro, which existed from February 4, 2003, until June 5, 2006, after the proclamation of independence by Montenegro in 2006 through a referendum made on June 3. It bordered on Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

History

In the 6th and 7th centuries, the Slavic tribes of the basin between the Oder and Vistula rivers migrated south and settled on the southern slopes of the Carpathians, these peoples were the origin of the Croats and Serbs who then constituted a single nationality although without a single state. In the S. VII, before the attacks of the Avars, the Byzantine Empire made alliances with these Slavic peoples who thus established themselves in the Dinaric region of the Balkan Peninsula, which until then was formally part of the said Byzantine Empire.

However, given the progressive weakness of Byzantium, the Serbo-Croats promptly ceased to lend any kind of vassalage to the Byzantine Empire, especially when the group established to the west of the Drin river accepted the primacy of the Roman Church and, at the time, the hegemony of the Carolingian Empire, thus clearly emerged the Croatian group. The Serbs for their part adhered to Byzantine Christianity, but this did not prevent them, following the Croatian example, from remaining independent of the Byzantine Empire.

In this way the Serbs fought against the Byzantines and finally secured their independence. The most powerful Serbian governor (tsar) was Stefan Dušan. He drafted Serbian law codes and opened up new trade markets. Serbia flourished, representing one of the most developed nations and cultures in Europe.

The throne eventually passed to Lazar Hrebeljanović. He was confronted by a Turkish emissary carrying a declaration of war. Lazar marched with his army across the Kosovo countryside to the Battle of Kosovo (1389), which ended in bloody combat. He drove the invaders back, but fell with his entire army. Belgrade finally fell to the Ottomans on July 7, 1521.

Government and politics

Since February 4, 2003, the date of entry into force of the new Constitutional Charter, the name Serbia and Montenegro replaced the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The usual or short name and the official had the same form.

Serbia and Montenegro had no common capital: Belgrade was the administrative center and the seat of the Federal Assembly and the Council of Ministers; Podgorica was the seat of the Court of Serbia and Montenegro.

There were practically no common policies and both republics functioned separately. Despite the existence of common institutions (the president and the parliament, made up of the parliamentarians of Serbia with 91 seats and Montenegro with 35), both republics only had a common policy in terms of defense, foreign ministry, trade and human rights. They did not keep the same currency, since Serbia used the Serbian dinar and Montenegro the euro.

Dissolution of Serbia and Montenegro

On May 21, 2006, in a referendum, 55.4% of the Montenegrin population supported the independence of this territory (the European Union had set a minimum of 50% participation and 55% participation). votes in favor of independence to accept the result.). On June 3, 2006, the Montenegrin parliament ratified these results and proclaimed the country's independence, thus the confederation of Serbia and Montenegro ceased to exist fragmenting into two states: Serbia and Montenegro.

Political-administrative organization

Political Division of Serbia and Montenegro.

Serbia and Montenegro comprised four main political units, consisting of two republics and two subordinate provinces:

• Serbia (capital: Belgrade).
  • Vojvodina: autonomous province within Serbia (capital: Novi Sad).
  • Kosovo: autonomous province within Serbia administered by the UN (capital: Priština).
• Montenegro (capital: Podgorica).

The political and administrative capital of the country was Belgrade, while its judicial capital was Podgorica.