Book excerpt: The historical interest that attaches to Montenegro is utterly out of proportion to the space that country occupies on the surface of the earth. With the exception of the politically insignificant republics of San Marino and Andorra, and of the principalities of Monaco and Liechtenstein, it is the smallest unit in the aggregate of European states; and yet it is able to exhibit in the pages of its annals a record of persistent heroism to which not one of them can furnish a parallel. For nearly five centuries its hardy mountaineers have carried on a struggle for existence against an enemy many times superior to them in point of numbers; and, whilst the remaining Slavs of the Balkan peninsula have been compelled, during the greater part, at least, of that period to submit to an alien domination, the Montenegrins alone have succeeded in preserving intact their national independence..