The ships were built by Sociedad Española de Construcción Naval in Ferrol which had strong British links and were designed by Sir Philip Watts.

It has often been stated that the design was based on the British Emerald-class cruiser, but this seems not in fact to have been the case,[1] although they were clearly an inspiration for the concept of the Spanish ships.

The programme was initially authorised in 1915 but was delayed by World War I with construction of the first ship starting in 1917.

During the Spanish Civil War, renamed Libertad, she served in the Spanish Republican Navy and was interned in Bizerte, French Tunisia, at the end of the conflict.

Miguel de Cervantes (named after Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra) was also part the Republican fleet during the civil war and was torpedoed by the Italian submarine Evangelista Torricelli in 1936.