San Pedro de Macorís (Spanish: San Pedro de Macorís) is a city and municipality in the Dominican Republic, the capital of the San Pedro de Macorís province of the same name. It borders the municipalities of Consuelo (San Pedro de Macoris) to the north, Sabana de la Mar to the northwest, Ramón Santana to the east and Guayacanes to the west, and is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the south. San Pedro de Macoris is located 70 km from the country’s capital, Santo Domingo.

Name
San Pedro in the name of the city appeared before Makoris. There are three versions about the origin of this name: according to the first, it is associated with the San Pedro beach in the port of the city; in the second, it refers to General Pedro Santana, the country’s first president; and on the third, it is simply due to the need to distinguish it from the city of San Francisco de Macoris, located in the north. Makoris is the ancient name of the territory where these 2 cities are located.
San Pedro de Macoris was poetically called “Macoris of the Sea”, “Sultan of the East” or, more commonly, “Capital of the East”.

History
San Pedro de Macoris was founded at the end of the 19th century by Cubans who fled here from the War of Independence taking place in their homeland. Their knowledge and skills in the cultivation and processing of sugar cane contributed to the further rapid growth of the sugar industry in the territory of San Pedro de Macoris. The city reached its peak in the first quarter of the 20th century, when, due to the First World War, sugar prices rose significantly on the international market. Many Europeans settled in the city, making its center cosmopolitan. The Pan American airline operated regular flights to the city using seaplanes, at which time the port of San Pedro de Macoris was more commercially active than the capital’s port of Santo Domingo.

San Pedro de Macoris has become a pioneer among Dominican cities in various fields. So the first fire corps in the country, the national baseball championship, telephone and telegraph centers, a racetrack and much more appeared here. The first sugar factory was founded by Juan Amechasurra, which began operating on January 9, 1879. By 1894, there were already many sugar mills in the province, corresponding to the high level of progress of that time. With economic growth the intellectual development of the city was also observed: schools were opened, new newspapers were established, such as “Las Novedades”, “Boletín”, “La Locomotora” and “El Cable.”