The policies of the US occupation had made land plentiful and cheap, and US citizens and corporations were the main beneficiaries. Estimates of the proportion of US-owned land varied greatly—anywhere from one-third to one-thirtieth. By 1907, foreigners owned an estimated 60 percent of all rural property in Cuba. Resident Spaniards owned another 15 percent, which left only a quarter of rural property under Cuban ownership. The number is so staggering it bears repeating in slightly different terms: less than a decade after independence, perhaps three-quarters of Cuban territory belonged to
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