The Dupleix class consisted of three armored cruisers built for the French Navy (Marine Nationale) at the beginning of the 20th century.

Her sister ships were initially assigned to the Mediterranean Squadron (Escadre de la Méditerranée), although Desaix relieved Dupleix as flagship of the Atlantic Division in 1905.

Before she was transferred to the Eastern Mediterranean in May 1915, the ship spent most of her time on escort duty in the Indian Ocean and Red Sea.

To help protect Allied shipping from German commerce raiders, the sisters were transferred to French West Africa for convoy escort duties in mid-1916 and remained there for the next year.

Personnel shortages caused Kléber to be ordered home in mid-1917, but she struck a naval mine laid by a German submarine in June and sank; most of her crew was rescued by ships in the area.

French cruiser policy during the decade from the mid-1880s was incoherent as three different factions of the navy fought amongst themselves in four forums, the Navy Ministry (Ministre de la Marine), the Budgetary Committee of the Chamber of Deputies (Chambre des députés), the Supreme Naval Council (Conseil supérieur de la Marine) that proposed shipbuilding programs and ship characteristics to the Navy Minister, and the Board of Construction (Conseil des travaux) that was responsible for evaluating ship designs.

[1] A traditionalist Navy Minister, Vice Admiral (Vice amiral) Armand Besnard, succeeded the liberal politician Édouard Lockroy in April 1896, after the latter had authorized construction of the very large armored cruiser Jeanne d'Arc in the 1896 budget proposal, despite opposition from the Conseil des travaux.

The Conseil des travaux rejected Besnard's proposal for a 5,700-metric-ton (5,610-long-ton) protected cruiser in late 1896,[2] saying that the navy "needed ships that can deal out and withstand punishment",[3] but Besnard authorized construction of Jurien de la Gravière a few weeks later in the 1897 budget proposal anyway.

Besnard initially proposed adding an enlarged version of Jeanne d'Arc, but this was rejected by the Conseil des travaux in early 1897.

This satisfied the Superior Naval Council's objectives and all three factions as Fourier's ideas showed that armored cruisers could accomplish the Jeune École's preferred strategy of commerce raiding.

[4] Preliminary design work in December 1896 was for a 7,300-metric-ton (7,185-long-ton) ship armed with ten 164.7-millimeter (6.5 in) guns, two in single-gun turrets fore and aft of the superstructure and the remaining eight in casemates, protected by a 70-millimeter (2.8 in) waterline armor belt.

Bertin opposed the changes, but produced drawings by early March 1899, despite the work load on his designers who were focused on other projects, and they were approved by the Minister on 6 April.

The engines of all three ships were designed to produce a total of 17,100 metric horsepower (12,600 kW) that was intended to give them a maximum speed of 21 knots (39 km/h; 24 mph).

[9] The ships of the Dupleix class had a main armament that consisted of eight quick-firing (QF) 45-caliber Canon de 164 mm Modèle 1893–96 guns.

The face and sides of the gun turrets were protected by 110-millimeter (4.3 in) Harvey face-hardened armor plates, although their roofs were only 20 millimeters (0.79 in) thick.

On the 26th, the cruiser was attacked by Ottoman coastal artillery at Bodrum while inspecting shipping, losing 27 men killed and 11 wounded.

Improved defenses in the Channel and the stabilization of the front in early 1915 allowed the cruisers to be released from their tasks, so Desaix was assigned to the 3rd Squadron upon her arrival in the Eastern Mediterranean on 16 February.

[22] Kléber collided with the Royal Australian Navy troopship HMT Boorara in the Aegean Sea on 17 July, damaging her bow.

[25] The successes of German merchant raiders like Möwe in 1916 caused the Allies to transfer cruisers to the Atlantic to protect their shipping.

[26] To release manpower for higher-priority patrol boats in 1917, the 6th DL was reduced to Dupleix and Desaix and renamed the Coast of Africa Division (Division navale de la côte d'Afrique) on 18 May; Contre-amiral (Rear Admiral) Louis Jaurès transferred his flag to Dupleix.