Overseas Serbs of Montenegro (Serbian: Срби у Црној Гори / Srbi u Crnoj Gori) or Montenegrin Serbs (Serbian: Црногорcки Cрби / Crnogorski Srbi),[b] compose native and the second largest ethnic group in Montenegro (32.93% of country's population),[4] after the ethnic Montenegrins.

Additional 0.47% of the population is made up of people defining themselves as Serbs-Montenegrins (Срби-Црногорци / Srbi-Crnogorci) and Montenegrins-Serbs (Црногорци-Cрби / Crnogorci-Srbi).

[7] The Serb regions of Duklja and Travunija broke away from Byzantine rule c. 1034–1042, under prince Stefan Vojislav, founder of the Vojislavljević dynasty.

His son Mihailo I Vojislavljević (d. 1081) liberated Zahumlje and inner Serbia, creating a united Serbian polity and taking the title of king (c.

At the end of the war in 1918 tensions arose between the two states as the Montenegrin Whites with Serbian support deposed Nicholas I of Montenegro and proclaimed Montenegro's unification with Serbia as part of Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (renamed into Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929), while the Montenegrin Greens opposed it.

[12] After the separation of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia in 1991 and 1992, SR Montenegro held the Montenegrin referendum in 1992 which ended with a 95.96% of votes in favour for a state union with Serbia and with the changing of the socialist political system towards a multi-party one.

In 2003, three years after the fall of Milošević in 2000, and after insisting on international diplomacy, the former Yugoslavia became known as the state union of Serbia and Montenegro.

The Montenegrin language eventually gained international recognition and was assigned the ISO 639-2 and -3 code [cnr] in December 2017.

[15] The links between the two nations remain strong, and the fact that for the last two centuries a great number of Montenegrins had emigrated to Serbia further strengthens the ties.

The Montenegrin littoral is still the main tourist destination for citizens of Serbia, and a large population of Serbians own property in Montenegro.

It was wholly red until Prince-Bishop Petar II Petrović Njegoš surrounded it with a black rim (called derevija),[22] and the definition given was as a sign of grief of occupied Kosovo.

The enforcement of the cap upon the Montenegrin chieftains by Peter II was a mark of expression of then's dominating Serbian national identity.

[23] The national telling recorded the most often version of the cap as following: the black wrapper was a sign of grief for the once big Empire, the red the bloody defeat at the Battle of Kosovo[24] and the five small stripes on the top represent the remaining remains of the once greater Serbian realm,[25] which became increasingly popular amongst the common folk during the reign of Prince Danilo I Petrović-Njegoš.

Within the stripes is angled a six star, representing the last free part, Montenegro, shining upon the fallen and conquered.