Santiago, full name Santiago de los Caballeros, city in the northern Dominican Republic, capital of Santiago Province, on the Yaque del Norte River. It is in the center of the fertile and healthful Cibao Valley, and is the largest town of the Dominican Republic's interior, with a flourishing trade in rice, tobacco, coffee, cacao, and hides. A chief industry is the manufacture of tobacco products. The city contains a technological university (1974) and a private, Catholic university (1962). Santiago was founded in the 1490s by the Spanish led by the Italian navigator Bartholomew Columbus, the brother of Christopher Columbus. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1562 and rebuilt close to the original site. Population (1994 estimate) 500,000.
