Have you ever flown somewhere? It’s fairly simple to fly, right? Well it wasn’t way back in the Renaissance. That’s why it took so long for anyone to actually go anywhere. Back then, explorers had to take long journeys on ships to get  to places that would take us a few hours to reach. However, that didn’t discourage them, and they started the era known as the Age of Exploration. During the Age of Exploration, thousands of people traveled around the globe to ‘discover’ lands and riches, even if there were already people living there.

Some of the first explorers were the Vikings, who established settlements in Northern Canada and the East coast of the US. Other early explorers were the Portuguese, who focused on trade routes in and around Africa in the early 15th century. 

The major explorers were mostly from Europe, and everyone in our class chose one to focus on and write a comic story about. We also had to give a presentation on why we should be funded to go on an expedition.

The explorer I chose to research was Robert de la Salle, a French man who owned land in Quebec. He took two major expeditions. During the first one, he travelled to modern-day Louisiana, and named the area the Louisiana basin. The objective of his second major expedition was to establish colonies at the mouth of the Mississippi River, which is where his first expedition led to. However, during the second expedition, only one ship out of four made it to North America, but it completely missed the Mississippi River, landing in modern-day Texas instead. The crew of the last ship, tired of La Salle, committed mutiny and killed him. This is the expedition my comic book is about. 

The comic book had to include a story of us traveling with the explorer we researched. But before we could make them, we had to learn about comics. We studied four different categories of comics and reviewed them. The categories were Tintin comics, Superhero comics, Anti-hero comics, and New Age comics. I have to say my favourite were the Anti-hero comics, because they didn’t seem to follow that strict formula of other comics, like superhero comics. 

In my comic, I made up some fictional elements, like how the mutiny had been planned from the beginning, so Robert de la Salle diverted the expedition to Texas. I also created a portion where I traveled back to France. However, it was true other than those portions. 

 

For the presentation I had to give to convince the king of France (Louis XIV), I gave a couple of reasons why I should be funded. One of those was that the colony he wanted to establish could still be very useful for France and New France, and one was that I know how Robert de la Salle would have wanted to proceed- send an expedition led by a crew member he trusted. 

I think that learning about such diverse topics and connecting them in one unit has really helped me as a learner. 

Thank you for reading my blog post!