She was intended to serve as a long-range commerce raider, designed according to the theories of the Jeune École, which favored a strategy of attacking Britain's extensive merchant shipping network instead of engaging in an expensive naval arms race with the Royal Navy.

As such, Guichen was built with a relatively light armament of just eight medium-caliber guns, but was given a long cruising range and the appearance of a large passenger liner, which would help her to evade detection while raiding merchant shipping.

At the start of World War I in July 1914, the ship was mobilized into the 2nd Light Squadron and tasked with patrolling the western end of the English Channel.

After the war, she continued transport duties, but after her crew mutinied in 1919, she was recalled to France, where she was eventually struck from the naval register in 1921 and broken up.

In the mid-1880s, elements in the French naval command argued over future warship construction; the Jeune École advocated building long-range and fast protected cruisers for use as commerce raiders on foreign stations while a traditionalist faction preferred larger armored cruisers and small fleet scouts, both of which were to operate as part of the main fleet in home waters.

The program authorized the large protected cruisers Guichen and Châteaurenault, both of which were intended as long-distance commerce raiders.

These vessels were ideally suited to attack the extensive merchant shipping network of Britain, not the continental powers of Germany or Austria-Hungary.

[1] In the early 1890s, the United States Navy built two very large and fast cruisers intended to raid merchant shipping in the Atlantic, the Columbia class.

These ships greatly impressed many senior officers in the French Navy, including the French Naval Minister, Félix Faure, who issued requests for design proposals in late 1894. the chief characteristics were very high speed and great cruising range on a displacement of around 8,500 t (8,400 long tons; 9,400 short tons).

The Conseil des Travaux (Council of Works) issued its more detailed list of specifications to shipyards on 18 December 1894 to solicit design proposals.

[3] Both ships were intended to resemble passenger liners, which would help them evade discovery while conducting commerce raiding operations.

The French cruisers suffered from several defects, however, including insufficient speed to catch the fast transports that would be used to carry critical materiel in wartime and their vast expense militated against their use to attack low-value shipping.

[4][5] The ship's propulsion system consisted of three vertical triple-expansion steam engines driving three screw propellers; she was the first French protected cruiser to adopt a three-shaft arrangement.

[3][5] Despite her large size, Guichen carried a relatively light armament, since she was intended to engage unarmed merchant vessels, not other cruisers.

[5] Guichen was built at the Ateliers et Chantiers de la Loire shipyard in Saint-Nazaire; the order was placed on 9 October 1895 and her keel was laid down there in late May 1896.

[15] With the fighting in China having been suppressed by late in the year, Guichen returned to France, arriving on 17 October,[11] having traveled in company with the armored cruiser Amiral Charner.

[20] The ship returned to service for another tour in East Asia in 1905; during this period, her crew observed the Russian Second Pacific Squadron pass through Cam Ranh Bay in French Indochina in May on its way to the Battle of Tsushima of the Russo-Japanese War.

[24] By 1911, Guichen had been assigned to the Reserve Division of the Northern Squadron, along with the armored cruisers Dupetit-Thouars, Gueydon, Montcalm, Jeanne d'Arc, and Kléber.

[11] After the start of World War I in August 1914, Guichen was assigned to the 2nd Light Squadron, which at that time consisted of the armored cruisers Marseillaise, Amiral Aube, Jeanne d'Arc, Gloire,Gueydon, and Dupetit-Thouars.

[26] The French began withdrawing cruisers from the Channel over the following year, particularly after the British erected the Dover Barrage, a barrier of naval mines and nets patrolled by destroyers.

She initially joined the main fleet, based at Malta; toward the end of the month, Italy entered the war on the side of France and the Triple Entente.

The squadron's base at Port Said on the Suez Canal was deemed to be too far for Guichen, Desaix, and Foudre, so the French occupied the small island of Arwad to secure a closer anchorage.

On 12 and 13 September, Guichen participated in the evacuation of some 4,000 Armenians from the city of Antioch, along with Amiral Charner, Desaix, D'Estrées, Foudre, and the British seaplane carrier HMS Anne.

[32] In August, Guichen was outfitted at Brest for use as a troop transport, the primary alterations being the installation of additional cooking spaces and the fitting of more lifeboats.