Qualla: Battle of Mocopulli https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:39:57 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Mocopulli https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli Battle of Mocopulli: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli/ Photo credit Lin linao, CC BY-SA 3.0. By 1824 the Spanish flag had fallen almost everywhere in South America, but not here. While the new Chilean republic celebrated its independence, the rainy archipelago of Chiloé remained stubbornly, genuinely loyal to the crown, the last royalist holdout in the country. On April 1 that loyalty was tested in the marshes of Mocopulli, near Dalcahue, where a republican army that had landed on the island walked into a waiting ambush. The fighting in the boggy clearing was the bloodiest of the whole campaign, and when it was over the patriots were sailing back to the mainland. Chiloé would stay Spanish for two more years.

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/627x-battle-of-mocopulli-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Mocopulli: The Island That Would Not Join https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli/ Photo credit Lin linao, CC BY-SA 3.0. Chiloé's loyalty was not imposed from Madrid; it was real. Throughout the long Chilean War of Independence the archipelago had backed the royalist cause, and the crown enjoyed broad support among the islanders themselves. This made Chiloé a thorn for the young republic, a Spanish...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/627x-battle-of-mocopulli-the-island-that-would-not-join.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Mocopulli: Freire's Invasion https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli/ Photo credit Lin linao, CC BY-SA 3.0. When Ramón Freire became supreme director of Chile in 1823, one of his first acts was to plan the conquest of the island that still defied the republic. In March 1824 his army crossed the Chacao Channel, the narrow, treacherous strait that separates Chiloé from the mainland. They...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/627x-battle-of-mocopulli-freires-invasion.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Mocopulli: The Trap in the Marsh https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli/ Photo credit Lin linao, CC BY-SA 3.0. The royalist commander on Chiloé, the formidable Antonio de Quintanilla, did not wait to be surrounded. His men chose the ground at Mocopulli, a marshy glade along the patriot line of march, and lay in ambush. When the republican column came on, led in the field by Colonel Jorge ...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/627x-battle-of-mocopulli-the-trap-in-the-marsh.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Mocopulli: The Cost of the Clearing https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli/ Photo credit Lin linao, CC BY-SA 3.0. The price was paid in young men on both sides. Of roughly six hundred patriots who entered the fight, somewhere between two hundred fifty and three hundred fell killed or wounded, nearly half the force, an appalling rate for a single afternoon. The royalists, fielding perhaps a t...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/627x-battle-of-mocopulli-the-cost-of-the-clearing.mp3 0:06 5 full Battle of Mocopulli: Two More Years for the Crown https://qualla.com/battle-of-mocopulli/ Photo credit Lin linao, CC BY-SA 3.0. Strategically, Mocopulli was a royalist victory. The patriots retreated to Dalcahue, re-embarked, and sailed back to Chile, the invasion abandoned. The defeat handed the islanders a powerful symbol of resistance and delayed Chiloé's absorption into Chile until 1826, when Freire r...

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]]> Sun, 21 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/6/2/7/x/battle-of-mocopulli-wp/627x-battle-of-mocopulli-two-more-years-for-the-crown.mp3 0:06 6 full