Revisionist Zionism is a faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism. Revisionism led to the development of the Likud Party.
The ideology was developed originally by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, who advocated a "revision" of the "practical Zionism" of David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, which was focused on independent individuals settling of Eretz Yisrael. In 1935, after the Zionist Executive rejected Jabotinsky's political program and refused to state that "the aim of Zionism was the establishment of a Jewish state", Jabotinsky resigned from the World Zionist Organization. He founded the New Zionist Organization (NZO) to conduct independent political activity for free immigration and the establishment of a Jewish State. Revisionist Zionism was based on a vision of "political Zionism", which Jabotinsky regarded as following the legacy of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism.
In its early years, and under Jabotinsky's leadership, Revisionist Zionism was focused on gaining the aid of Britain as a major power for settlement. Later, Revisionist groups independent of Jabotinsky's leadership conducted campaigns of violence against the British authorities in the British Mandate of Palestine to drive them out and establish a Jewish state.
Revisionism was distinguished primarily from other ideologies within Zionism by its territorial maximalism. They had a vision of occupying the full territory, and insisted upon the Jewish right to sovereignty over the whole territory of Eretz Yisrael (originally encompassing all of Mandatory Palestine). The British establishment of Transjordan (the modern-day state of Jordan) adversely affected this goal and was a great set-back for the movement. Until Israel achieved statehood, Revisionist Zionism became known more for its advocacy of more belligerent, assertive posture and actions against both British and Arab control of the region.