Sentence:  Now , with virtually every writer , not only was the European origin of public law acknowledged as a historical phenomenon , but the rules thus established by the advanced civilizations of <WSD>Europe</WSD> were to be imposed on others . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  the 2nd smallest continent (actually a vast peninsula of Eurasia); the British use `Europe' to refer to all of the continent except the British Isles