The Montenegrin frontier of the Ottoman Empire: Loyalties and frontier defense (1863-1870)

This thesis focuses on the period from 1863-1870 and analyzes the implementation of Tanzimat reforms in the Montenegrin frontier re-gion of the Ottoman Empire with respect to military defense practices. The thesis revolves around the state's efforts in the frontier region to implement Tanzimat reforms while organizing a border defense and sustaining the loyalty of people living on the frontier. The thesis draws on archival documents as well as contemporary studies and demon-strates the Tanzimat state's policies on the Montenegrin frontier within the context of the administrative and military modernization of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century. It also examines the rela-tionships between frontier people, Montenegro, and the Ottoman ad-ministration. In addition, the thesis investigates how frontier people's own policies affected the efforts of the Sublime Porte and Montenegro to penetrate the area. At the same time, the study contains a general overview of the central state's attempts to directly control other fron-tier regions of the empire. These attempts by the Tanzimat state to control the frontiers were designated to increase treasury revenues and military manpower resources. The lack of sustainable sources re-strained the limits of the Ottoman central administration in frontiers.