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175 CONCLUSION Abiit ad Plures ◆ The New State Is Born ◆ The Christmas Uprising was the most radical attempt by the supporters of independence to reverse the already completed process of the annexation of Montenegro, which was formalized by the resolution of the Great People’s Assembly of the Serbian People in Montenegro. Initially, the uprising enjoyed considerable public support, and its goals were the preservation of Montenegrin political and cultural distinctiveness within the newly established Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. After a swift military defeat, the movement was used and manipulated by both the Montenegrin government in exile and the government of Italy to achieve short-term political goals, and it ended up as a minor domestic disturbance in one of the provinces of the newly formed South Slav state. Even though the Great Powers had shown no interest in preserving Montenegrin independence and sovereignty, King Nikola and his government, as well as many participants in the uprising, hoped that their activities would somehow affect the final outcome of the Paris Peace Conference. Their hopes and dreams remained just that. From 1917 onward, the Allied governments adopted the idea of the new common state of the South Slavs and supported the efforts of the Serbian government in achieving this goal. Once military operations on the Thessalonica front were successfully concluded, Serbia came out of the war as the strongest state in the region and was seen as a force of stability. Its politicians and diplomats skillfully presented to the Great Powers their case for a unitary state and rationalized their requests as the only logical and just outcome of World War I. The forceful advocates of the unification of South Slavs (both domestic and foreign) portrayed the independent Montenegrin state as a remnant of past times and its king as a selfcentered and power-hungry autocrat. The fact that King Nikola left the country in early 1916 under suspicious circumstances and remained isolated in exile in France had diminished his influence on events in Montenegro. He was further marginalized 176 ◆ CONCLUSION by the actions of his former prime minister, Andrija Radović, and persistent rumors about Nikola’s wartime collaboration with Austria-Hungary did not endear him to his World War I allies. The unionist propaganda machine further fueled those rumors . Under the supervision and guidance of the Serbian government and with the support of the Great Powers, the Montenegrin Committee for Unification succeeded in preparing the ground for the formal act of annexation. With generous financial assistance from Belgrade and the backing of the Serbian army stationed in Montenegro , Andrija Radović and his colleagues worked tirelessly on organizing the assembly in Podgorica. Unlike their opponents, the unionists were well organized and focused on achieving their main objective: the annexation of Montenegro. The dubious legality of the entire process and the hastily organized elections for the assembly, as well as the unconstitutional character of the resolution of the Podgorica Assembly, were of no consequence for the unionists because they saw their work as revolutionary activity that should not respect old rules. Montenegro lost its independence and sovereignty and, in reality, became a part of Serbia instead of becoming a constitutive segment of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. Between 1920 and 1924, the Montenegrin government in exile made several more attempts to revisit some aspects of the Paris Peace Conference and internationalize the Montenegrin Question with the League of Nations. All efforts proved to be in vain. As far as the League of Nations was concerned, the question of Montenegro was answered, and the last memorandum submitted by the Montenegrin government in exile in 1924 ended up in the Library of the League of Nations Secretariat. The Montenegrin Question was put ad acta. Montenegro: Polity in Turmoil Montenegro is not only one of the smallest but also one of the oldest Balkan polities. The chronicle Regnum Sclavorum (1183) mentions Montenegro as part of the former Roman province of Prevalitanis, also known as Doclea (later called Zeta). Since the fifteenth century the name Černagora has been used to describe this principality and its territory. Centuries before it was formally recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers at the Berlin Congress in 1878, the Montenegrin principality existed on the political map with various levels of independence. Throughout its turbulent history, Montenegrin sovereignty and statehood depended on the ability of its rulers to strike the right balance between the contesting territorial and political...

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