In 1864, the Sultan Abdul Aziz, pressured by the Great Powers of Europe, decided to hand over to the Montenegrins the territory of Novoselo, near the Bojana river. This was Albanian territory and part of the Pasha of Shkodër. Various 19th century sources mention these stripping away of land.

“However, in 1864 the border was again regulated, and in 1866 Nicholas received from the Sultan the strip of land of Novosella, through which the Montenegrins gained free access to the sea.”¹

The German paper “Der Bote aus dem Rielen Gebirge. Eine Zeitschrift für alle Stände” Nr. 84 Published October 20, 1866, also mentions that the Porte gave away “Novosella” to the Montenegrins.²

According to the Swedish writer Per Olof Bäckström, in his publication “Öfversigt af de europeiska staternas politiska historia under de sista tjugu åren” from 1882, we can read that Montenegro issued a new law in 1855 which prohibited future imperialist expansionist wars. This was obviously violated several times.

Cited:

“En ny grundlag utfärdades den 23 april 1855 hvilken dock ej innefattade några föreskrifter rörande styrelseformen utan endast angående rättsskipningen jemte en samman fattning af förut gällande laga stadgar hvilka nu i flera delar mildrades till öfverensstämmelse med en mera framskriden civilisations fordringar så att bland annat plundringståg mot grannländerna och blodshämnd mellan särskilda slägter nu formligen förbjödos”

Translation:

“A new constitution was issued on April 23, 1855, which did not include any regulations regarding the form of government, but only regarding the administration of justice, along with a summary of previously valid legal statutes, which were now softened in several parts to conform to the demands of a more advanced civilization, so that, among other things, raids against neighboring countries and blood feuds between particular clans were now formally prohibited.”³

Despite having received Albanian territories, the Montenegrin colonialist greed would not subside. New demands were made, this time for Tivari (Antivari) and Spiç (Spizza) in 1867.

“On October 13, 1866, the Sublime Porte made the requested concessions to Prince Nicholas regarding the blockhouses and ceded to him the strip of land at Novosella, thereby granting the Montenegrins free access to the sea. Nevertheless, in December 1867, Montenegro, through its own delegation to Constantinople, demanded further action from the Sublime Porte. Recently, and in a rather threatening manner, the cession of a port in the Adriatic Sea, Antivari or Spizza, was threatened. However, in March 1868, the Sultan had to leave the capital empty-handed.”⁴

Montenegro had demanded the Albanian port of Spica already in 1862.

“The true goal for which the Black Mountains rose up in 1862 was the acquisition of the port of Spizza in the Gulf of Antivari on the Adriatic Sea. Montenegro, which has no navy and cannot have one, only wants to gain this port, whose location is quite advantageous, in order to cede it to Russia under the title of an unlimited lease. Russia wants to regain, through Montenegro’s mediation, the naval base in the Adriatic Sea that it lost in Villafranca on the Mediterranean Sea as a result of the Italian War of 1859.”⁵

Decades prior to this, Montenegrin bandits had attacked and pillaged the Albanians of Spizza (denoted in Italian sources as “Spizzanotten”.)

Sources

1. Geïllustreerde encyclopaedie woordenboek voor wetenschap en kunst, beschaving en nijverheid · part 11 . 1886 https://www.google.se/books/edition/Ge%C3%AFllustreerde_encyclopaedie/S2PppVOkVmsC?hl=sv&gbpv=1&dq=Spitza&pg=PA183&printsec=frontcover ↩︎
2. https://jbc.bj.uj.edu.pl/Content/755542/0084_NDIGCZAS040199_109778492.pdf ↩︎
3. Öfversigt af de europeiska staternas politiska historia under de sista tjugu åren, Per Olof Bäckström, 1882 ↩︎
4. Allgemeine Weltgeschichte Allgemeine Geschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts ; 4. Theil (1866 – 1878, 7. Abt 1885). https://www.google.se/books/edition/Allgemeine_Weltgeschichte/lOpq5EWWL-oC?hl=sv&gbpv=1 ↩︎
5. Bozner Zeitung 1866. https://www.google.se/books/edition/Bozner_Zeitung/bVjvSKXmea0C?hl=sv&gbpv=0 ↩︎