Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century with the goal of establishing and maintaining a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, a region historically significant to Judaism and roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel

. It arose as a response to rising antisemitism in Europe and the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), advocating for Jewish self-determination through the creation of a Jewish state in their ancestral homeland

. Theodor Herzl is often credited as the founder of modern political Zionism, having organized the movement around 1896 to promote Jewish migration to Palestine and the establishment of a sovereign Jewish state

. Zionism views Jews as a nation, not merely a religious group, and emphasizes the right to self-governance and security within a Jewish state

. The movement led to the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, which was preceded by British support through the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and the British Mandate for Palestine

. Zionism includes various ideological streams-such as Liberal, Labor, Revisionist, Cultural, and Religious Zionism-that differ in their approaches to governance, territory, and the role of religion

. Zionism is seen by its supporters as a national liberation movement for a historically persecuted people seeking to return to their ancestral homeland

. However, it has also been criticized as a colonialist and supremacist ideology by its detractors, particularly because of its impact on the Palestinian Arab population and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

. In summary, Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement aimed at creating and sustaining a Jewish state in the historic Land of Israel, rooted in both historical-religious attachment and modern nationalist ideology