Why did Jews want to establish an independent nation?

Answer 1

There are a number of reasons why the territory that constitutes the British Mandate of Palestine was chosen as the future Jewish State, but I believe your question is why did Jews want an independent sovereign nation at all.

The idea of a politically sovereign Jewish state is not an alien concept in history. There was an independent Kingdom of Israel and Judah during Biblical times. (There is confirmation of such kingdoms in Egyptian, Assyrian, and Babylonian codices and documents.) Furthermore, there was an independent Jewish state (the Hasmonean Kingdom) after the successful Jewish revolt (chronicled in Hanukkah) until the Roman conquest a century later. In addition, many rulers who occupied the territory noted the prevalence of Jewish inhabitants, such as Persians, Greeks, and Romans and gave them specific religious prescriptions.

In the Modern Age, it is believed that Napoleon would have bequeathed the Jews a State in British Palestine according to a speech he would have delivered if he had won the Battle of Acre (he lost the battle and thus did not give the speech). The real cry for a sovereign Jewish State came from Herzl and other Zionists who were looking for political protection and unity by realizing that Jews were a nation defined by culture, language, and customs just like Poles, Germans, or Italians and like them deserved a place to have political freedoms, economic freedoms, and control of a region of territory.