General Santos, officially the City of General Santos, (Cebuano: Dakbayan sa Heneral Santos; Hiligaynon: Dakbanwa/Syudad sang Heneral Santos; Filipino: Lungsod ng Heneral Santos, referred to as General Santos City, and abbreviated as GenSan, is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Soccsksargen, Philippines. According to the 2015 census, it has a population of 594,446 people.

Located on the island of Mindanao, it is the southernmost and 15th-most populous city in the Philippines. It is the regional center for commerce and industry of the Soccsksargen region, and is geographically located within the province of South Cotabato but administered independently of it.

Formerly known as Dadiangas, city is named after Gen. Paulino Santos, a former Commanding General of the Philippine Army, and the settlement's leading pioneer.

The nomadic B'laan people are the original inhabitants of General Santos, and traces of their early settlement of the area are found in the city's place names, which are derived from their vocabulary. Their name for the city, Dadiangas, is from the thorny Ziziphus spina-christi tree that was once abundant in the area and is now a protected species under Republic Act 8371 or the Indigenous Peoples Right Act of 2007. The B'laan tribe presently lives alongside the city's new generation of settlers and other immigrants.

Organized under the National Land Settlement Administration (NLSA) of the Commonwealth Government headed by President Manuel L. Quezon, General Paulino Santos led the relocation of 62 Christian settlers from Luzon to the shores of Sarangani Bay aboard the steam ship “Basilan” of Compañia Maritima on February 27, 1939. The 62 pioneers, mostly agricultural and trade graduates, were the first large batch of settlers to land in the area with the mission to industriously cultivate the region. After this first influx of pioneers, thousands more Christians from Luzon and the Visayas have subsequently moved into the area, gradually driving some of the resident B'laan to the mountains, who have lost their livelihood.

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