Montenegro. Montenegro is a country of South and Southeast Europe on the coast of the Balkans. It borders Bosnia-Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast, Kosovo to the east, Albania to the southeast, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, and Croatia to the west. Montenegro has an area of 13,812 square kilometres and a population of 620,079. Its capital, Podgorica, is one of the twenty-three municipalities in the country. Cetinje is designated as the Old Royal Capital. During the Early Medieval period, three principalities were located on the territory of modern-day Montenegro: Duklja, roughly corresponding to the southern half; Travunia, the west; and Rascia proper, the north. Montenegro's de jure independence was recognised by the Great Powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, following the Montenegrin-Ottoman War. In 1905, the country became a kingdom. After World War I, it became part of Yugoslavia. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, the republics of Serbia and Montenegro together established a federation known as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was renamed to the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003. On the basis of an independence referendum held in May 2006, Montenegro declared independence and the federation peacefully dissolved on 3 June of that year, ending a nearly 88-year union between the two states. Since 1990, the state of Montenegro has been governed by the Democratic Party of Socialists and its minor coalition partners. Classified by the World Bank as an upper middle-income country, Montenegro is a member of the UN, NATO, the World Trade Organization, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Council of Europe, and the Central European Free Trade Agreement. It is a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. In the monuments of Kotor, Montenegro was mentioned as Montenegro in 1397, as Monte Nigro in 1443 and as Crna Gora in 1435 and 1458, but there are much older papers of Latin sources where Montenegro is mentioned as Monte nigro. The first mention of Montenegro dates to 9 November 1053 in a papal epistle and the others date to 1061, 1097, 1121, 1125, 1144, 1154, 1179 and 1189. The native name Crna Gora, also meaning black mountain, came to denote the majority of contemporary Montenegro in the 15th century. The aforementioned region became known as Stara Crna Gora Old Montenegro by the 19th century to distinguish the independent region from the neighbouring Ottoman-occupied Montenegrin territory of Brda Highlands'. Montenegro further increased its size several times by the 20th century, as the result of wars against the Ottoman Empire, which saw the annexation of Old Herzegovina and parts of Metohija and southern Raška. Its borders have changed little since then, losing Metohija and gaining the Bay of Kotor. After the second session of the AVNOJ during World War II in Yugoslavia, the modern state of Montenegro was founded as the Federal State of Montenegro on 15 November 1943 within the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia by the ZAVNOCGB. After Democratic Federal Yugoslavia became the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia, the Federal State of Montenegro was renamed to the People's Republic of Montenegro on 29 November 1945.