;1833:
Benjamin Disraeli, then 28 years old, writes
The Wondrous Tale of Alroy about
David Alroy's messianic mission to Jerusalem ;1837:
Lord Lindsay travels to Palestine. In 1838 he wrote
Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land in which he stated "Many I believe entertain the idea that an actual curse rests on the soil of Palestine, and may be startled therefore at the testimony I have borne to its actual richness. Let me not be misunderstood: richly as the valleys wave with corn, and beautiful as is the general aspect of modern Palestine, vestiges of the ancient cultivation are every where visible... proofs far more than sufficient that the land still enjoys her Sabbaths, and only waits the return of her banished children, and the application of industry commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance—all that she ever was in the days of Solomon." ;1839: The
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland passes an
Act on the Conversion of the Jews, and sends four
Church of Scotland ministers,
Andrew Bonar,
Robert Murray M'Cheyne,
Alexander Keith and Alexander Black to Palestine. They publish the popular book
Narrative of a Visit to the Holy Land; And, Mission of Inquiry to the Jews in 1842 ;1839:
Judah Alkalai publishes his pamphlet ''Darhei No'am
(The Pleasant Paths) advocating the restoration of the Jews in the Land of Israel as a precursor to the coming of the Messiah, followed in 1840 by Shalom Yerushalayim'' (The Peace of
Jerusalem). ;1839:
Lord Shaftesbury takes out a full-page advert in The Times addressed to the Protestant monarchs of Europe and entitled "The State and the rebirth of the Jews", which included the suggestion for the Jews to return to Palestine to seize the lands of Galilee and Judea, as well as the phrase "Earth without people – people without land". ;1840: Lord Shaftesbury presents a paper to British Foreign Minister
Lord Palmerston calling for the 'recall of the Jews to their ancient land'. ;1840 (August 11):
Lord Palmerston writes to
Lord Ponsonby,
British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire: "There exists at the present time among the Jews dispersed over Europe, a strong notion that the time is approaching when their nation is to return to Palestine... It would be of manifest importance to the Sultan to encourage the Jews to return and settle in Palestine because the wealth which they would bring with them would increase the resources of the Sultan's dominions; and the Jewish people, if returning under the sanction and protection, and at the invitation of the Sultan, would be a check upon any future evil designs of Mehemet Ali (of Egypt) or his successor... I have to instruct Your Excellency strongly to re-commend (to the Turkish Government) to hold out every just encouragement to the Jews of Europe to return to Palestine." ;1841:
George Gawler, previously the governor of South Australia, starts to encourage Jewish settlements in the land of Israel. ;1842:
Nadir Baxter, of the
Church Pastoral Aid Society, died in 1842 and donated £1,000 in his
will, stating that it be paid "towards the political restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem and to their own land; and as I conscientiously believe also that the institution by the Anglican Church of the bishopric of Jerusalem is the actual commencement of the great and merciful work of Jehovah towards Zion". The gift was declared void in 1851 in the case of
Habershon v Vardon by Sir
James Lewis Knight-Bruce,
Chancellor of the High Court, who stated "If it can be understood to mean any thing, it is to create a revolution in the dominions of an ally of her Majesty". ;1841–42: Correspondence between
Moses Montefiore, the President of the
Board of Deputies of British Jews and
Charles Henry Churchill, the British consul in Damascus, is seen as the first recorded plan proposed for political Zionism. ;1844:
Mordecai Noah publishes
Discourse on the Restoration of the Jews. ;1844: According to one source, the
Old Yishuv Jews constitute the largest of several ethno-religious groups in
Jerusalem – however estimates approximately 20 years before and 20 years after this date suggest otherwise. See
Demographics of Jerusalem. ;1844: Rev. Samuel Bradshaw, in his
Tract for the Times, Being a Plea for the Jews calls for Parliament to allot 4 million pounds for the Restoration of Israel, with another 1 million to be collected by the Church. ;1844: Pastor T. Tully Crybace convenes a committee in London for the purpose of founding a "British and Foreign Society for Promoting the Restoration of the Jewish Nation to Palestine". He urges that England secure from Turkey Palestine "from the Euphrates to the Nile, and from the Mediterranean to the Desert". ;1845:
George Gawler publishes "Tranquilization of Syria and the East: Observations and Practical Suggestions, in Furtherance of the Establishment of Jewish Colonies in Palestine, the Most Sober and Sensible Remedy for the Miseries of Asiatic Turkey." ;1849:
George Gawler accompanies Sir
Moses Montefiori on a trip to Palestine, persuading him to invest in and initiate Jewish settlements in the country. ;c.1850:
James Finn and his wife found the "British Society for the Promotion of Jewish Agricultural Labour in the Holy Land" ;1851: Correspondence between
Lord Stanley, whose father became
British Prime Minister the following year, and
Benjamin Disraeli, who became
Chancellor of the Exchequer alongside him, records Disraeli's proto-Zionist views: "He then unfolded a plan of restoring the nation to
Palestine – said the country was admirably suited for them – the financiers all over Europe might help – the
Porte is weak – the Turks/holders of property could be bought out – this, he said, was the object of his life...."
Coningsby was merely a feeler – my views were not fully developed at that time – since then all I have written has been for one purpose. The man who should restore the Hebrew race to their country would be the Messiah – the real saviour of prophecy!" He did not add formally that he aspired to play this part, but it was evidently implied. He thought very highly of the capabilities of the country, and hinted that his chief object in acquiring power here would be to promote the return" ;1852:
George Gawler founds the Association for Promoting Jewish Settlement in Palestine ;1853–1875:
Heinrich Graetz publishes History of the Jews (), the first academic work portraying the Jews as a historical nation. Graetz's work became more nationalistic as the volumes progressed, culminating with Volumes I and II in 1873–1875 after he had returned from a trip to Palestine. ;1853:
Abraham Mapu publishes
Ahabat Zion, the first Hebrew novel, a romance of the time of King Hezekiah and Isaiah ;1857:
James Finn, the second
British Consul in Jerusalem, writes to Foreign Secretary the
Earl of Clarendon regarding his proposal "to persuade Jews in a large body to settle here as agriculturalists on the soil ... in partnership with the Arab peasantry" ;1860: The
Alliance Israélite Universelle is founded in Paris ;1861: The
Zion Society is formed in
Frankfurt, Germany. ;1861:
Mishkenot Sha'ananim — first neighborhood of the
New Yishuv outside the
Old City of Jerusalem, built by
Sir Moses Montefiore. ;1862:
Moses Hess writes
Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question (
text) arguing for the Jews to return to the Land of Israel, and proposes a socialist country in which the Jews would become agrarianised through a process of "redemption of the soil". His ideas later evolved into the
Labor Zionism movement. ;1862:
Zvi Hirsch Kalischer publishes
Derishat Zion, maintains that the salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only by self-help. His ideas contributed to the
Religious Zionism movement. ;1867:
Mark Twain visits Palestine as part of a tour of what westerners call
the Holy Land. ;1869: Twain publishes
The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress documenting his observations through his travels. He indicated he observed that Palestine was
primarily an uninhabited desert. His account was widely circulated and remains a controversial snap-shot of the area in the late 19th century. ;1870:
Mikveh Israel, the first modern Jewish agricultural school and settlement was established in the Land of Israel by
Charles Netter of the
Alliance Israélite Universelle. ;1870–1890: The group
Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) sets up 30 Jewish farming communities in the Land of Israel. ;1876: The English novelist
George Eliot publishes the widely read novel
Daniel Deronda, later cited by
Henrietta Szold,
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, and
Emma Lazarus as having been highly influential in their decision to become Zionists. ;1878 (June): A German-language memorandum addressed to
Disraeli and
Bismarck is submitted to the
Congress of Berlin by an anonymous Jewish group advocating the establishment of a Jewish
constitutional monarchy in Palestine. It was originally thought to have been written by Disraeli himself, ;1878:
Galician poet
Naphtali Herz Imber writes a poem
Tikvatenu (Our Hope), later adopted as the Zionist
hymn Hatikvah. ;1878:
Petah Tikva is founded by Jerusalem Jews, but abandoned after difficulties. Resettled in 1882 with help from first aliyah. ;1878: The first
Hovevei Zion ("Lovers of Zion") groups were founded in Eastern Europe ;1880:
Laurence Oliphant publishes
The land of Gilead, with excursions in the Lebanon which proposes a settlement under British protection while respecting Ottoman sovereignty. He proposes that the 'warlike' Bedouins be driven out, and the Palestinians be placed in reservations like the native Indians of America. ;1881–1884:
Pogroms in the
Russian Empire kill several Jews and injure large numbers, destroy thousands of Jewish homes, and motivate hundreds of thousands of Jews to flee. ;1881–1920: Over two million of the Russian Jews emigrate. Most go to the U.S., others elsewhere, some to the
Land of Israel. The first group of
Biluim organize in
Kharkov. ;1881:
Eliezer ben Yehuda makes
aliyah and leads efforts to revive
Hebrew as a common
spoken language. ;1882 January 1:
Leon Pinsker publishes pamphlet
Autoemancipation (
text) urging the Jewish people to strive for independence and national consciousness. ;1882: Baron
Edmond James de Rothschild begins buying land in the region of Palestine and financing Jewish agricultural settlements and industrial enterprises. ;1882–1903: The
First Aliyah, major wave (estimated at 25,000–35,000) of Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine. ;1882:
Rishon LeZion,
Rosh Pinna,
Zikhron Ya'akov are founded. ;1883: Rabbi
Isaac Rülf publishes
Aruchas Bas-Ammi, calling for a Hebrew-speaking Jewish homeland in Palestine. ;1884:
Katowice Conference headed by
Leon Pinsker ;1890:
Austrian publisher
Nathan Birnbaum coins the term
Zionism for Jewish nationalism in his journal
Self Emancipation. ;1890: The Russian Tsarist government approves the establishment of "The Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Palestine", a charity organization which came to be known as "The
Odessa Committee." ;1891: Publication of the
Blackstone Memorial petition ;1894: The
Dreyfus affair makes the problem of
antisemitism prominent in Western Europe. ;1896: After covering the trial and aftermath of Captain Dreyfus and witnessing the associated mass anti-semitic rallies in Paris, which included chants, "Death to Jews", Jewish-Austro-Hungarian journalist
Theodor Herzl writes
Der Judenstaat (
The Jewish State) advocating the creation of a Jewish state. ;1896–1904: Herzl, with the help of
William Hechler, unsuccessfully approaches world leaders for assistance in the creation of a Jewish National Home but creates political legitimacy for the movement. In 1902, Herzl publishes
Altneuland, which portrays a Jewish state where Jews and Arabs live together in harmony, reflecting Herzl's belief in the importance of coexistence and mutual respect between different communities. ==After the First Zionist Congress==