World War I

World War I lasted from 1914 to 1918 and caused the collapse of several major empires, including the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled the Land of Israel since 1517. During the war, Britain captured Jerusalem in 1917, ending Ottoman rule in the land. That same year, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, supporting the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in their ancestral homeland. From a Jewish-history perspective, World War I opened the door for modern political changes that eventually led to the British Mandate and increased Zionist immigration.