At the start of World War I in August 1914, the ship was initially assigned to the 2nd Light Squadron, but was quickly transferred to reinforce the Syrian Division for operations against the Ottoman Empire.

In the 1880s and 1890s, factions in the French Navy's officer corps argued over the types of cruiser that best served France's interests.

The two cruisers of the D'Estrées class were ordered under the construction program of 1896 at the behest of the colonialists for use in the French overseas empire.

The ship's propulsion system consisted of a pair of triple-expansion steam engines driving two screw propellers.

[14] At the start of World War I in August 1914, D'Estrées was stationed in the English Channel as part of the 2nd Light Squadron, which at that time consisted of the armored cruisers Marseillaise, Amiral Aube, Jeanne d'Arc, Gloire, Gueydon, and Dupetit-Thouars.

[17] In late April, fears that the Ottoman Empire was planning an attack on the Suez Canal prompted the French to send D'Estrées, the protected cruiser D'Entrecasteaux, and Jeanne d'Arc to Port Said to reinforce the warships supporting the land defenses of the canal.

[16][19] Vice Admiral Louis Dartige du Fournet, the commander of the unit, declared a blockade of the coast on 25 June.

D'Estrées was assigned to patrol duty in company with the armored cruiser Amiral Charner and the pre-dreadnought Jauréguiberry.

Amiral Charner, Guichen, Desaix, and the seaplane tenders Foudre and HMS Anne also contributed to the evacuation effort.

[23] In November, she joined the hunt for the German commerce raider SMS Wolf, which was known to be operating in the Indian Ocean.

She was sent to the Maldives, where she learned that civilians there had seen Wolf and the captured Japanese steamer SS Hitachi Maru, but by that time, the German raider and her prize were gone.

[25] After the war, the ship was refitted at La Ciotat and was sent to French Indochina, where she remained for the rest of her active career.