Sentence:  One can apply these facts to <WSD>Britain</WSD> in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as she spread her dominion over palm and pine , and they can be applied again to the United States in more recent years . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles; divided into England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland; `Great Britain' is often used loosely to refer to the United Kingdom