While it could be from literally anywhere, I'd assume most of them came from the Soviet Union, Germany, France, and Poland, along with plenty of other smaller countries like Austria, Hungary, and even Greece.
A the civil war is the answer
At the end of the quotation, when the author says “Island” he refers to England. This excerpt refers to the fact that the English people took a great amount of land as its colonies between the 16th and 18th centuries. The British Empire and its Colonial Department was settled in England, which is and Island.
And the author states that it is absurd that a quite smaller island would govern a continent as big as Africa.
The government under the Articles of Confederation was very "weak" in that it could only regulate trade between the states. Although its greatest achievement was that it allowed maximum freedom for citizens, its failure was that it could not tax the states adequately.
