 By 1844, some sources report that Jews had become the largest population group in Jerusalem and by 1890 an absolute majority in the city, but as a whole the Jewish population made up far less than 10% of the region.In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants, mostly from Eastern Europe, began arriving in Palestine and establishing new Jewish settlements.These immigrants were largely motivated by nationalism and a desire to live in the land of their ancestors as Zionism, or support for founding a new Jewish state, emerged.