“Remnants” enter in to it less than one might think. It is a mitzvah to live in the Land of Israel regardless of the political arrangements in the region. Jews have always talked about doing so and actually done so when the opportunity presented itself. The popular secular Zionist Movement was not as widely embraced as we seem to see it in retrospect
The development of steam engines made all sorts of travel easier, the rise of secularism with Napoleon, and the declining Muslim zealotry of the Turks, undoubtedly made it easier for Jews to return to the Holy Land, so it’s not really surprising that mass movements sprung up with real possibilities.
My Jewish boss and friend has told me there are 613 Jewish laws one has to keep in order to go to heaven. If you live in Israel then it's automatic.
I'm not sure if he was joking or not.
It’s my understanding that no mass migrations back to Israel began until 1882. Prior to that the numbers were groups of at most a few thousand and normally just hundreds.