Holy Land under authority of Turkish Ottoman Empire, ruled by France

The struggle of that generation of pioneers in the 1880s and the two generations that followed them was carried on in a harsh climate, on toughened, treeless soil, while waging an often losing battle with malaria which came up from the swamps and the undrained rivers, and resisting Bedouins, while marauding habits persisted even into the twentieth century.

Zionism's political progress was blocked, but the physical movement of immigration and restoration continued in the face of endless difficulties erected by the decrepit, backward, and corrupt administration and the physical hardships and perils presented by the ravaged country.