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Rene Robert de La Salle - New World Explorer for Kids - FREE Lesson Plans for Teachers, Games for Kids

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Rene Robert de La Salle was a French explorer. He was the first to navigate the Mississippi all the way down to the mouth of the river. He claimed a great deal of land, equal to about a third of what would become the United States, including the mouth of the Mississippi, for France. (Af…

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The story of La Salle, the French explorer who accidentally settled a town (Fort Saint Louis) in Texas.

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The Life of Robert de La Salle - A Lesson for Kids

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sieur de la salle explorer texas  north american explorer explorers  k-12

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Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle: Explorer - EnchantedLearning.com

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Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle: North American Explorer.

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A look on La Salle's life, and his explorations.-- Created using PowToon -- Free sign up at http://www.powtoon.com/ . Make your own animated videos and animated presentations for free. PowToon is a free tool that allows you to develop cool animated clips and animated presentations for your website, office meeting, sales pitch, nonprofit fundraiser, product launch, video resume, or anything else you could use an animated explainer video.

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Robert de La Salle, also called Robert Sieur de la Salle, was a famous French explorer. He was born on November 21, 1643, in Rouen, France. He spent nine years as a Jesuit student and teacher before renouncing his vows and traveling to the New World.

The Search for the Northwest Passage

La Salle's career in exploration began in 1666, when he traveled to Quebec, Canada as a French colonist. In 1667, he was granted a seigneury (a large plot of land) on Montreal Island, which he sold two years later in the hopes of jump starting his career as an explorer. Eager to find the fabled Northwest Passage to Asia, La Salle set up an impulsive expedition with nine canoes from Montreal, Quebec in 1669. La Salle and his crew, however, were ill-prepared for the exploration, but did reach Lake Ontario. The expedition turned back to Montreal two months later without reaching the river that La Salle believed led to China - the Ohio. La Salle made several other smaller expeditions between 1671 and 1673.

Exploring the Great Lakes

In 1677, in pursuit of his own glory, he returned to France and got permission from the King to explore all lands between Florida, Mexico, and New France. After stockpiling supplies and building a ship on the Niagara River, La Salle and his men explored parts of Lake Erie, Lake Huron, and Lake Michigan and the surrounding land (including Green Bay, Wisconsin) in 1679 and 1680.

Claiming "Louisiana"

On February 6, 1682, La Salle and 40 men reached the Mississippi River and began their journey south. On April 9, La Salle claimed the entire Mississippi River Basin for France when he reached the mouth of the river near Venice, Louisiana. The claim included not only the Mississippi River, but all land where its branches extended - approximately two thirds of the entire United States. La Salle named the region Louisiana, after his King. On the return trip, La Salle and Henri da Tonti, one of his lieutenants, oversaw the construction of Fort St. Louis in 1682 on a butte above the river in modern-day Illinois. Today, the park is known as Starved Rock and is the most visited state park in the state of Illinois. Tonti stayed as commander of the fort, while La Salle returned to France for more supplies.

La Salle's Deadly Failure

In 1684, La Salle and 300 hopeful colonists returned to North America in the hopes of establishing a large French colony along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The trip, however, was a nightmare. It was plagued by pirate attacks, hostile Indians, and poor navigation. One of La Salle's supply ships became shipwrecked and members of the expedition killed local Indians who had taken supplies from the wreck, making dangerous enemies. The expedition ended up in Texas where they founded another Fort St. Louis, far from their target - the Mississippi River. During one of several searches for the river, 36 of La Salle's men mutinied near present-day Navasota, Texas. It was here where La Salle was murdered by one of his own men on March 19, 1687. The colony of Fort St. Louis would persist until 1688, when its remaining residents were killed by Indians.

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Robert Sieur de la Salle Biography for Kids

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Robert de La Salle, also called Robert Sieur de la Salle, was a famous French explorer. He was born on November 21, 1643, in Rouen, France. He spent nine years as a Jesuit student and teacher before renouncing his vows and traveling to the New World.

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Synopsis

Born in Rouen, France, on November 22, 1643, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was an explorer best known for leading an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. He claimed the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV. His last expedition to establish fur trading posts failed and cost La Salle his life in 1687.

Background and Early Life

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was born into a wealthy merchant family in Rouen, France, on November 22, 1643. When La Salle was 15, he gave up his inheritance to become a Jesuit priest. However, by age 22, La Salle found himself attracted to adventure and asked to be sent abroad as a missionary to join his brother, Jean, who had been in New France (Canada) for a year and was a priest of the Seminary of St. Sulpice.

New Life in New France

With no craft and no funds, La Salle was nearly destitute when he landed on the island of Montreal in 1667. He asked to be released from the Jesuit Society citing "moral weaknesses." The Seminary of St. Sulpice had laid claim to areas on the island of Montreal and was granting land to settlers for protection against the Iroquois. Soon after his arrival, La Salle received a land grant. He quickly built a settlement, granted land to other settlers and initiated relations with the local natives. The Mohawks told him of a great river named the Ohio that flowed to the Mississippi and out to the sea. La Salle thus became obsessed with the idea of finding a river in North America that flowed to China.

Exploring the Great Lakes Region

About this time, La Salle befriended New France Governor Daniel Courcelle, the Count of Frontenac. Courcelle shared La Salle's obsession with exploration, and together they pursued a policy of extending French military power across the Great Lakes. La Salle sold his settlement and in 1673 traveled to France to obtain permission from French King Louis XIV to explore the region between Florida, Mexico and New France.

By 1677, La Salle had prospered, controlling a large share of the fur trade, but relentless ambition drove him to seek more. He once again sailed to France to obtain permission to explore the western part of New France and the Mississippi in hopes of finding a water route to China. La Salle returned to Montreal with dozens of men and Italian soldier of fortune Henri de Tonti, who became his devoted disciple. By August 1679, La Salle's men had constructed a fort on the Niagara River and built the ship Le Griffon for the journey down the Mississippi. The mission had to be suspended due to the loss of Le Griffon, most likely in a storm, and a mutiny by the sailors. (La Salle was reputedly callous in his treatment of those he deemed subordinate.)

In February of 1682, La Salle led a new expedition down the Mississippi River. Along the way they built Fort Prod'homme at present-day Memphis, Tennessee. In April, they reached the Gulf of Mexico. La Salle named the region "La Louisiane," in honor of King Louis XIV, and cultivated important military, social and political alliances with Native American tribes in the upper Mississippi River area. On his return trip, La Salle established Fort St. Louis in Illinois.

Final Mission

On July 24, 1684, La Salle set out for North America with a large contingent of four ships and 300 sailors to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico at the mouth of the Mississippi River and challenge Spanish rule in Mexico. The expedition encountered problems nearly from the start. La Salle and the marine commander argued over navigation. One ship was lost to pirates in the West Indies. When the fleet finally landed at Matagorda Bay (near present-day Houston, Texas), they were 500 miles west of their intended destination. There, a second ship sunk and a third headed back to France. The last ship was wrecked by a drunken pilot, stranding the remaining crew on land. In October 1686, La Salle took a small team of men and traveled up the Lavaca River trying to locate the Mississippi. Most of the men died. A second team set out but a few months later, a mutiny erupted and five men attacked and killed La Salle on March 19, 1687.

Legacy

Though René-Robert La Salle failed in his last mission, his expeditions built a network of forts from Canada, across the Great Lakes and along the Ohio, Illinois and Mississippi rivers. This defensive front line established the French territory in North America and defined its commercial and diplomatic policy for almost a century. His friendships with numerous Native American tribes assisted and supported French colonial settlers and the military up to the Seven Years' War.

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Born in Rouen, France, on November 22, 1643, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle was an explorer best known for leading an expedition down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. He claimed the region watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries for France and named it Louisiana after King Louis XIV.

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