The ships were designed for service in the French colonial empire, and they carried a relatively heavy battery of fifteen 138.6 mm (5.46 in) guns, and could steam at a speed of 14.5 knots (26.9 km/h; 16.7 mph).

The four ships of the Villars 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.

As a result, significant reinforcements under Rear Admiral Amédée Courbet were dispatched in early 1883 to strengthen French naval forces in the area as the Tonkin campaign got underway.

[6] France's campaign to occupy Vietnam, a traditional subject of Qing China, led to clashes between French and Chinese forces, and ultimately, to the start of the Sino-French War in 1884.

After about 45 minutes of shooting, Villars and the gunboat Lutin forced the gunners at two outer forts to abandon their guns, and by 09:00, the Chinese stopped firing.

They quickly found themselves to be significantly outnumbered by some 2,000 Chinese soldiers, so the French fell back to the fortifications, destroyed the guns there, and then withdrew to their ships.

At the start of the action, Villars engaged Feiyun and Ji'an in company with Duguay-Trouin; the Chinese cruisers were quickly sunk under French gunfire.

Villars then engaged the shore battery and assisted D'Estaing with the destruction of Zhenwei, which put up unexpectedly heavy resistance until Triomphante joined the action and smashed the small gunboat with her 240 mm (9.4 in) guns.

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.

[9] These operations continued to 28 August, which again saw landing parties from Villars 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.

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.

Villars suffered machinery problems during these maneuvers and was unable to take part in a second series of exercises held in late July and early August.