In November 1894, the Brazilian government placed an order for three protected cruisers with the British shipyard Armstrong, Mitchell & Company.

[1] Work continued for Brazil on the remaining two ships, with another cruiser ordered to the same design to replace Ministro Zenteno, but only one, Almirante Barroso, was operated by Brazil, with the other two ships, Amazonas (later USS New Orleans) and Almirante Abreu (later USS Albany), purchased by the United States Navy on the eve of the Spanish–American War.

[1] As a protected cruiser, the ship's vitals were protected by a full-length arched deck of steel armour, 3+1⁄2 inches (89 mm) thick on the slopes and 1+1⁄4 inches (32 mm) on the horizontal part of the deck.

The ship's conning tower was protected by 4 inches (100 mm) of armour.

In 1907 she sailed off Valparaíso for a training cruise bound for Punta Arenas, Bahía, La Guaira, Bermudas, Hampton Roads, Annapolis, Newport, Plymouth, Brest, El Ferrol, Lisboa, Argel, Malta, Spezia, Genova, Barcelona, Cartagena, Gibraltar, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Río de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Puerto Madryn, Punta Arenas, Puerto Montt, Talcahuano, and back to Valparaíso on 8 December 1907.