Montenegro declares war on Bulgaria

On 15 October 1915 the Kingdom of Montenegro announced that it was in a state of war with Bulgaria. That date is given by the British chronology of the war and by later compilations of declarations of war, although few details of the act itself have survived. By the Julian calendar, which Montenegro was using at the time, it was 2 October. That same day Britain declared a state of war with Bulgaria, and the day before Bulgaria had declared war on Serbia.

King Nicholas I had stood by Serbia from the start of the war. In August 1914, a few days after the outbreak of war, he declared war on Austria-Hungary, and since then his small army had been fighting the Austrians in Herzegovina, on the Drina and on the slopes of the Lovćen massif above the Bay of Kotor. War with Bulgaria was a simple consequence of that choice. Since Bulgaria had attacked Serbia, Serbia’s ally became its enemy.

Montenegro and Bulgaria shared a complicated past. In 1912 both countries belonged to the Balkan League, and Montenegro was the first to begin the war with Turkey. A year later, in the Second Balkan War, the Montenegrins sent a division under Janko Vukotić to help the Serbs, and it fought the Bulgarians on the Bregalnica. Now history was repeating itself: Bulgaria again wanted to take Macedonia from Serbia, and Montenegro again sided with the Serbs.

Militarily the declaration changed little. Montenegro did not border on Bulgaria, and its soldiers could not realistically meet the Bulgarians in the field. The whole Montenegrin army was needed in the north and west, where Austro-Hungarian troops had for several days been attacking Serbia and on the Drina also threatened Montenegro. The declaration was above all of political significance. Serbia’s allies one after another took their stand against Bulgaria, and over the next few days France, Russia and Italy also declared war on it.

The coming months proved tragic for Montenegro. The Montenegrins covered the retreat of the Serbian army, which at the end of the year withdrew across the mountains to the Adriatic. In January 1916 the Austrians took the Lovćen and Cetinje, and Montenegro capitulated. King Nicholas went into exile.