January 1 - 4: Herzl in Edlach.
January 2: Joseph Chamberlain in East Africa. He finds a wonderful piece of land for Jewish settlement.
January 6 - 26: Journey to Paris and London.
January 7: Paris: Herzl discusses the reply to the British government with Nordau, Leopold Greenberg and Alexander Marmorek and to take counsel on subsequent action.
January 12: Herzl arrives in London.
January 13 - 16: Herzl begins the preparations for the expedition. Meetings in the Foreign Ministry and with Lord Rothschild.
January 15: Meeting with Lord Rothschild. Herzl shows him the correspondence with the British government and asks for three million pounds from the I. C. A. for the Jewish Eastern Company.
January 16: Lunch with Lord Rothschild and meeting with Sir Thomas Sanderson, Undersecretary for Foreign Affairs in Downing Street. Herzl submits the itinerary of the Commission and the membership. Sanderson recommends Sir Benjamin Baker, builder of the Aswan Dam, as irrigation engineer.
Herzl is concerned about each and every detail.
January 21: Herzl travels to Paris.
January 24: Meeting with Max Nordau and Alexander Marmorek in Paris.
January 28: Herzl appoints Leopold Kessler as leader of the commission "for the exploration of the feasibility of settling in the northern half of the Sinai Peninsula.
January 29: Herzl and the Actions Committee in Vienna work out the outline of a Charter which is taken to Cairo by the expedition and delivered to Leopold Greenberg.
January 30: Leopold Greenberg, Herzl's representative in London, leaves for Cairo to carry on political negotiations.
February 10: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild, reports about the commission and asks for a meeting in Paris.
February 11: Herzl writes to the Grand Vizir and summarizes the proposal: Jewish colonization, a loan of 2 million Turkish pounds.
February 15: Herzl sends a new proposal to the Sultan: Colonization in the Sanjak of Acre in return for a guaranteed annual payment of 100.000 Turkish pounds.
Herzl is already thinking about Jewish colonization in Africa, but makes one more attempt with the Ottoman Empire.
February 17: Herzl meets Dr. Abdullah Djevdet Bey whose poetry he reviewed in the Neue Freie Presse. Djevdet offers his help in Turkey.
Leopold Greenberg reports from Egypt that it will be impossible to obtain a Charter.
February 22: Boutros Ghali writes the conditions for the Jewish settlement in Sinai.
February 23: Leopold Greenberg leaves Egypt.
February 25: Herzl receives a telegram from the commission in El Arish: "Vicinity has made a favorable impression."
February 26: Leopold Greenberg arrives in Brindisi and sends a short telegram whose obscurity of wording strikes Herzl unpleasantly.
February 27: Another favorable report from the expedition.
February 28: Max Nordau meets Leopold Greenberg in Paris an sends a wire to Herzl: "Greenberg had obtained everything that can possibly be conceded in an official agreement."
March 2: Herzl receives Greenberg's report.
March 11: Oskar Marmorek returns to Vienna.
March 18 - April 9: Herzl's journey to Egypt.
March 25: Cairo. Herzl meets Lord Cromer and Boutros Ghali.
The Zionist Commission returns to Suez.
March 27: The Commission meets Herzl in Cairo.
March 28: Another meeting with the Commission. Herzl, Goldsmid and Stephens visit Lord Cromer. He states that the Zionists should now demand the concession from the Egypt government. For this purpose the recommends Carton de Wiart, a lawyer.
March 29: Herzl meets Carton de Wiart. "We will give up the word 'Charter' but not the thing itself."
March 30: Carton de Wiart talks to the lawyer of the Egyptian government who recommends to hold the concession brief; also it should be a lease and not a freehold. Herzl demands a 99-year lease.
April 1: Herzl meets McIlwraithe, the legal adviser of the Khedive. Herzl presents the Zionist proposal. McIlwraithe promises that the government will make a counter-proposal.
April 2: Meeting with McIlwraithe. An immediate counter-proposal is out of question. The size of the land and the duration of the contract are discussed.
April 16: Herzl arrives in Paris and confers with Lord Rothschild, Zadoc Kahn and other members of the ICA on the method of its participation, in order to push the project with the British government.
April 21: Herzl arrives in London.
April 22: Herzl meets Lord Rothschild who tells him that Edmond de Rothschild is delighted with the plan.
April 23: Herzl is received by Joseph Chamberlain, who just came back from Africa.
The Chamberlain-Herzl negotiations of the "Uganda scheme" are the first recognition of the president of the Zionist Organization as representing the Jewish people.
April 25: Journey back to Paris.
April 26: Meeting with I.A.C. people in Paris who read Stephen's report about the expedition to the Sinai Peninsula. The reaction is favorable, but they are making reservations.
May 8: Goldsmid reports from Cairo that the negotiations stand bad.
May 11: The El-Arish project fails. Herzl writes in his diary: "I thought the Sinai plan was such a sure thing that I no longer wanted to buy a family vault in the Döbling cemetery, where my father is provisionally laid to rest. Now I consider the affair so wrecked that I have already been to the district court and am acquiring vault No. 28."
May 19: Menachem Ussishkin arrives in Vienna to prepare his visit in Palestine to make land purchases for the Geulah Committee and to organize the Yishuv.
May 23: Herzl writes to Wenzel von Plehve, Russian Minister of the Interior and to Konstantin Pobiedonostzev to ask for an audience with the Czar. The Kishinev pogrom has a shattering effect on Herzl.
Herzl also turns to Bertha von Suttner and asks for her assistance in this matter.
May 26: Herzl meets the Portuguese ambassador in Vienna to ask for a territory habitable and cultivable by Europeans.
May 30: Herzl informs Zadoc Kahn and Lord Rothschild about the failure of the El-Arish Project.
June 4: Herzl renews his efforts with Great Britain and again submits plans to Constantinople. He is pressing for a Charter for Mesopotamia.
June 13: The British government is willing to to receive a preliminary draft.
June 17: Herzl writes to Lord Rothschild that there is a chance to get a good piece of land from the Sultan.
Beginning of July: The first branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank - the Zionist Bank - opens in Jaffa. Its manager is Zalman David Levontin, one of the founders of Rishon LeZion.
July 8: Herzl writes to Pauline Korvin-Piatrovska and asks her to intervene for him in Russia. Wenzel von Plehve calls for the suppression of the Zionist Organization in Russia, the sale of Bank shares had already been forbidden.
July 20: Herzl writes to Leopold Greenberg in London to do whatever possible to revive the Sinai enterprise. "We must indeed take East Africa, or at least the Charter, but we must not deceive ourselves as to the fact that all the non-English Jews are against East Africa. I shall have to use a great deal of patience for it, whereas El Arish is popular." Herzl also prepares steps to approach Portugal for a Charter for Mozambique, Belgium for a territory in the Congo and Italy for a section of Tripoli.
July 18: Wenzel von Plehve is ready to receive Herzl.
August 5 - 18: Herzl's journey to Russia.
August 7: Herzl arrives in St. Petersburg, where he seeks Russian intervention with Turkey on behalf of his Zionist proposals to secure Jewish settlement in Palestine, and to permit open Zionist activity in Russia. He is received twice by Count Wenzel von Plehve, Russian minister of the interior, who is believed to be responsible for the Kishinev pogrom. Herzl's most important achievement is Wenzel von Plehve's acquisition as a supporter of Zionism.
August 11: Herzl meets Jews from all circles in St. Petersburg, a banquet is arranged by the Russian Zionists.
August 16: Stop in Vilna, where a tremendous ovation is awaiting him. Old Reb Shleimele lifts his hands over Herzl and pronounces the Priestly Benediction.
After one day of rest in Altaussee, Herzl leaves for Basle and the Sixth Congress.
August 20: Herzl arrives in Basel.
August 21: Herzl reports the Uganda offer and the Russian journey to the Greater Actions Committee.
August 22: After attending the Shabbat service in the Basel synagogue, Herzl invites a number of leaders (the Russians Mandelstamm, Yelski, Bernstein-Kohan and Tshlenov; besides Wolfssohn, Marmorek, Cowen and Zangwill) into Joseph Cowen's room in order to win them over to the Uganda Project. The final decision is to present the offer to the Congress.
August 23 - 28: The Sixth Zionist Congress convenes in Basel. It is the site of confrontations between Herzl and his supporters and the Zionists of Zion, who reject the plan for settlement in Uganda out of hand. Herzl brings the Uganda scheme is a temporary measure, emphasizing that Palestine remains Zionism's final object. Herzl is supported by Max Nordau, who terms the Uganda scheme a "Nachtasyl" (refuge for the night), and is opposed by Russian Zionists.
August 29: "Die Welt" publishes the declaration of the British Government on the allocation of a "Jewish territory" in East Africa.
August 31: Herzl in Konstanz on Bodensee. Herzl's last meeting with Grossherzog Friedrich of Baden in Mainau. Herzl presents his difficult dilemma between East Africa and Palestine. "We would be glad to renounce the good land of East Africa for the poor land of Palestine. I in particular would see an honorable rescue for our poor Jews if this exchange could be made."
September 5: Letter to Wenzel von Plehve. Herzl reports on the Congress.
September 13: Herzl writes to Austrian Prime Minister Ernest von Koerber. He encloses a copy of a letter Plehve addressed to Herzl. He expresses the hope that also Austria will support the Zionist undertaking.
October 27: Herzl travels to Edlach.
October 30: "Die Welt" publishes Ussishkin's letter and Herzl's answer. Menachem Ussishkin opposes an expedition to Uganda. ("Entweder Herr Ussishkin weiss einen kürzeren und besseren Weg, um das jüdische Volk in den öffentlich-rechtlichen Besitz Palästinas zu bringen - dann ist es von einem so guten Zionisten nicht schön, dass er uns diesen Weg nicht schleunigst angibt. Oder er weiss keinen - dann möge er nicht mit leeren Redensarten die Einigkeit im Zionismus stören, die mehr wert ist als ein paar Grundstücke in Palästina.")
November 11: Herzl writes the "Letter to the Jewish People".
December 4: Herzl reports in his diary: "The Russian members of the A. C., particularly Usshiskin, Jacobson, etc. are in open rebellion."
December 5: Leopold Greenberg and Herzl hold consultations about the line of activity to be pursued in England. Herzl has the impression that the British government is withdrawing the East African offer. Greenberg is to press once more for Sinai and El-Arish.
December 11: Herzl asks for an interview with the Austrian Foreign Minister Agenor Goluchowsky. He writes to Wenzel von Plehve and repeats his request that the Russian ambassador in Constantinople be directed to give his support to the Zionist demands. He also pursues his efforts to open a branch of the Jewish Colonial Trust in St. Petersburg.
December 14: In a letter to Sir Francis Montefiore, President of the English Zionist Federation, Herzl explains his position on Uganda.
December 19: Chaim Zelig Louban, a 27 year old student, attempts to assassinate Max Nordau at a Chanukkah ball of the Paris Zionist society. He approaches Nordau, cries "Death to Nordau, the East African" and fires two shots. Nordau writes to Herzl: "Yesterday evening I got an installment on the debt of gratitude which the Jewish people owes me for my selfless labors on its behalf. I say this without bitterness, only in sorrow. How unhappy is our people, to be able to produce such deeds."
In "Die Welt" Herzl publishes an account of the Kharkov conference, together with a declaration calling upon those who had voted for the ultimatum to surrender their mandates. In a subsequent issue a digest of the minutes of the Conference appears.
Portrait: Herzl, 1903
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