The four ships of the Lapérouse class were ordered under the auspices of the naval plan of 1872, which was laid out to modernize the French Navy in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871.

The navy sought new unprotected cruisers that carried a heavier armament than earlier vessels, while maintaining a similar size to keep costs from increasing during a period of limited naval budgets.

[3] At the time, tensions in the region had risen considerably, particularly after the Battle of Hanoi in April 1882, and the French began sending naval reinforcements in 1883 to strengthen their position during the Tonkin campaign.

[5] She had arrived in the region by March 1884, and at that time, the squadron also included the ironclad warships La Galissonnière (the flagship) and Triomphante, the unprotected cruisers Duguay-Trouin, Villars, and Volta, and the gunboat Lutin.

As Zhenwei burned furiously, her crew attempted to ram D'Estaing, but another salvo from Villars caused small arms ammunition aboard the Chinese vessel to explode and she quickly sank.

Another group of French warships also quickly destroyed or captured other elements of the Fujian Fleet further inside the harbor; the entire action lasted a mere eight minutes.

The French spent the night anchored off Couding and proceeded further downriver on 26 August; the forts at Mingan Pass were the next obstacle to reaching the open ocean.

[10][11] These operations continued to 28 August, which again saw landing parties from D'Estaing and other vessels go ashore to destroy gun batteries blocking their progress downriver.

The French victory at Fuzhou ended the initial diplomatic efforts to reach a compromise solution to the dispute over Tonkin, as the scale of the attack was such that the Chinese government could not ignore it.

Three transport vessels carrying a total of 1,600 soldiers arrived on 29 September, by which time the French had decided to return to Keelung and try to conquer the port along with Tamsui.

Courbet took several of his ships to resume the Keelung campaign, while his deputy, Rear Admiral Sébastien Lespès, took the remainder, centered on La Galissonnière, Triomphante, and D'Estaing, to attack Tamsui.

[14] The presence of a field of naval mines forced the French to clear it before sending men ashore, which further delayed the landing, along with bad weather.

Threatened with encirclement, the French fled to their boats, but the Chinese were unable to exploit their victory owing to gunfire from Lespès' ships.

[15] The French thereafter embarked on a blockade of Formosa on 20 October, while ground forces at Keelung waged a long battle with surrounding Chinese troops.

From 5 to 20 January 1885, D'Estaing cruised in company with Triomphante and the cruiser Champlain, and during this period, they stopped some thirty junks and captured two hundred Chinese sailors.

D'Estaing remained on blockade duty in mid-February 1885 when Courbet took several of his ships to attack Chinese naval reinforcements at the Battle of Shipu.

At that time, she was stationed on the northern end of the island in company with La Galissonnière, the ironclad Atalante, and the cruiser Volta.

[16] In March, Courbet secured approval from Paris to launch an attack on the Pescadores islands, which would both serve as a better base of operations for the French fleet than Keelung, and also deny their use to Chinese vessels that were then seeking to break through the Formosa blockade.

By 28 March, Courbet had assembled a flotilla that included D'Estaing, the ironclads Bayard and Triomphante, the cruiser Duchaffault, and the troopship Annamite, which was carrying some 400 soldiers taken from the Keelung garrison.

[17] On 30 March, elements of the French squadron began to force their way into Makung harbor to support the marine landing party as it fought its way toward capturing the provincial capital there.

The next day, D'Estaing, Bayard, and Triomphante contributed a landing party of around two hundred men to reinforce the marines on the island, bringing the total ashore to around 650.