Editing Uganda Scheme (section)

=== Initial negotiations ===
Initially, Herzl was not interested in the offer of a Jewish homeland in East Africa, as his focus was primarily on Palestine and its surrounding area. However, everything changed after the [[Kishinev Pogrom|Kishnev Pogrom]] after which he redoubled his efforts to secure a Jewish homeland.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> [[L. J. Greenberg|Leopold Greenberg]] acted as Herzl's main representative in the negotiations, and together they hoped to gain de facto diplomatic recognition from Great Britain, making the proposal's political value immense.<ref name=":2" /> Despite East Africa's lack of moral and historical significance to Jews, the East Africa plan held the most promise compared to the other plans.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":7">{{Citation |title=THE EMERGENCE OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT |date=2012-11-08 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv102bfrj.6 |work=Israel |pages=3–26 |access-date=2023-05-06 |publisher=Brandeis University Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctv102bfrj.6 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> Greenberg successfully obtained a letter from the Foreign Office expressing the British government's willingness to establish a Jewish colony with considerable land, local autonomy, and religious and domestic freedom under its general control. In the Sixth Zionist Congress, which took place in 1903 in Basel, Herzl presented the proposal and the Congress voted in favor of sending a fact-finding group to East Africa with 295 delegates in favor and 178 against.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" />