San Pedro de Macorís

The Dominican city of San Pedro de Macorís is the head municipality of the San Pedro de Macorís province, on the southeast of the country.

It has the nickname of Macorís del mar ("Macorís by the sea") to differentiate it from San Francisco de Macorís, in the Duarte Province.

History
There were two very small towns on the left side of the mouth of the river Macorís (or Higuamo): Mosquito (because there were too many mosquitos) and Sol (English: "Sun", because there were not trees). Even today, San Pedro de Macorís is called sometimes Mosquitisol after those two old and small towns.

Since 1852, there was a military post in this place: the Military Post of Macorís, part of the Hato Mayor del Rey municipality in the El Seibo Province.

In 1856, the priest Pedro Carrasco built a Catholic church with the name San Pedro Apóstol; the church was between the two towns of Mosquito and Sol. Both towns grew in direction of the church, forming one town called San Pedro de Macorís.

When the country was again a Spanish colony, San Pedro de Macorís was made a "Comandancia de Armas" (an Spanish military category). When the country was free again, in 1865, every town with the category of "Comandancia de Armas" became a municipality. But San Pedro de Macorís was still a very small town of the El Seibo Province.

After 1868, with the sugarcane plantations and the sugar factories, San Pedro de Macorís began to grow and it became one of the most important city in the Dominican Republic. Many people from Cuba and Puerto Rico came to live here during the last years of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century. Later came people from Spain and the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria) to work in businesses.

To work in the sugarcane fields and factories, people from Haiti and the British West Indies came to San Pedro de Macorís and other regions of the country.

Population
The city had, in , a total population of 195,307: 94,562 men and 100,745 women. The urban population was  of the total population.

Geography
San Pedro de Macorís is along the coast on the left side of the Higuamo river, also called Macorís. It has a total area of , about  of the total area of the province of San Pedro de Macorís. The city is at an elevation of  above sea level, and at  to the east of Santo Domingo. It does not have any municipal district (subdivisions of a municipality);

The municipality of San Pedro de Macorís is surrounded by the other municipalities of the province: Ramón Santana to the east, Quisqueya to the west and Consuelo to the north. To the south is the Caribbean Sea.

Climate
San Pedro de Macorís has a tropical wet and dry/savanna climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: Aw) with a pronounced dry season in winter.

The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is . The month with the most precipitation on average is October with  of rainfall, followed by September with .

The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is February with an average of  and the second is January with .

San Pedro de Macorís is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is . The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of . The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of .

Economy
The economy of San Pedro de Macorís grew around the sugar production; there were several sugar factories and most of that sugar was sent to other countries through its port and then it became one of the most important port of the country. Rum is also produced in the city; rum is made with alcohol from the sugar cane.

There are also some important industries, mainly to produce cement and textiles to send to other countries.

References

Settlements in the Dominican Republic
1856 establishments
19th-century establishments in the Spanish West Indies
1850s establishments in North America