In 1485, Gruda was recorded as a
nahiye in the
Ottoman administration. In 1499,
Hoti and Gruda rose against the Ottoman demands for taxes and conscripts. It was also involved in a series of revolts in the 17th century, often together with the
Malësian tribes. In
Mariano Bolizza's 1614 report and description of the
Sanjak of Scutari, Gruda had 40 households and 100 soldiers. The Old
Kuči constantly were in conflict with the Old Gruda; the Kuči were stronger, thus they stole livestock from Gruda, and if only one Kuči would be killed in conflicts, and several Gruda, they would penalize the whole tribe. In 1658, the seven tribes of Kuči,
Vasojevići,
Bratonožići,
Piperi,
Kelmendi,
Hoti and Gruda allied themselves with the
Republic of Venice, establishing the so-called "Seven-fold barjak" or "alaj-barjak", against the Ottomans. Gruda proved to be a focus of conflict between
Ottoman Empire and
Montenegro during the 1880s. During border negotiations Italy suggested in April 1880 for the Ottoman Empire to give Montenegro the Tuz district that contained mainly Catholic Gruda and Hoti populations which would have left the tribes split between both countries. The Porte insisted that in upcoming treaty to cede
Ulcinj to
Montenegro, Gruda be left to Albanians. During the same time, Porte's representative, Riza Pasha was turning a blind eye to the preparations of Albanian League for resistance against the upcoming Montenegrin occupation. According to Baron
Franz Nopcsa, Gruda was a primarily Catholic tribe with a population of ca. 7,000 in 1907. This symbolic act represented a major sign of the Ottoman Empire's crumbling rule over the Balkans, and it cemented Gruda's reputation among the other ethnic Albanian tribes. On 23 June 1911 Albanian tribesmen and other revolutionaries gathered in Montenegro and drafted the
Greçë Memorandum demanding Albanian sociopolitical and linguistic rights with four of the signatories being from Gruda. In 1913, the Great Powers at the Conference of London awarded Gruda and
Hoti to
Montenegro, thus cutting them off from the rest of
Albania and from other Albanian highland tribes. Montenegrin forces invaded Gruda territory in the spring on 30 and 31 may, with many dead and injured. In July 1913, emissaries of
Prince Nikola of Montenegro offered tribal leaders money and grain supplies to win them over to Montenegro, but they refused. As a reaction to the Montenegrin occupation of
Tuzi in 1913, Gruda sent a large deputation to Vice admiral Sir Cecil Burney, to convey him their resolve not to submit to Montenegro. Border skirmishes, and fighting, continued over the next six months and, by 1914, the Montenegrin government announced its military occupation of Gruda and Hoti. Most of the settlements in Gruda were razed to the ground by the Montenegrin army. The surviving population some 700 families from Gruda and Hori, Fled to
Kastrati. Part of the population emigrated in 1914 on the plain of north of
Shkodra, forming the settlement of Gruda e Re (New Gruda) The city of Tuzi lies in the east end of Gruda. Of
Tuzi's 3,789 residents, more than 2,000 are ethnic Albanians, making it, according to the 2003 census, the heaviest concentration of ethnic Albanians in
Malësia. Over the last 30 years there has been a minor influx from the surrounding villages of Albanians who are looking to take advantage of Tuzi's higher standard of living and better educational system. ==Ethnography==