She was named in honour of Joseph François, Marquis Dupleix (1697 - 1763) a French trader in the service of La Compagnie des Indes.

[3] With the Italians building the Condottieri class light cruiser to counter the large contre-torpillieurs, the General Staff decided this vessel should be immune to 155 mm (6.1 in) shell fire at 18,000 metres (19,685.04 yards).

Her high angle directors would be fitted abreast of the fore funnel and would revert to the same style of tripod mast as Suffren and Colbert.

[7] In 1935 the Marine Nationale co-operated with a film company for the production of Veille d'armes, directed by Marcel L'Herbier, a romantic melodrama about a captain in the French Navy.

The cruiser Dupleix was made available for location shooting in and around its base in Toulon, and L'Herbier sought to incorporate into the drama as much detail as possible about the ship and its procedures.

On 14 October she was deployed with Algérie to Dakar, Senegal as part of La Marine Nationale's Force X to hunt German surface raiders and merchantmen.

She departed Dakar for the last time on 23 January with the cruiser Foch to escort a convoy from Bermuda to Morocco.

[14] On 25 June the Franco-German Armistice took effect and La Marine National ceased all offensive operations.

With continued British action around Dakar, the Vichy French had scheduled for 22 September 1940 to send the cruisers Algérie, Foch, Dupleix, Marseillaise and La Galissonnière plus three contre torpilleurs and two fleet torpedo boats to Dakar as reinforcements.

On 1 January 1941 Dupleix was reduced to care and maintenance being replaced by Colbert in the First Cruiser Division.

Following the Torch landings in North Africa, the Germans invaded the unoccupied zone of France on 11 November 1942.

The Germans were delayed from entering the naval dockyard giving the French sailors time to scuttle the fleet.