Bugeaud became the flagship of the Levant Division in 1898, which operated as part of the International Squadron that intervened in the Cretan Revolt of 1897–1898.

All three members of the class were sent to East Asia in response to the Boxer Uprising in Qing China by 1901, and they remained in the region through the mid-1900s.

Chasseloup-Laubat was reduced to a storage hulk in 1911, but Friant remained in active service through the start of World War I in August 1914.

The latter vessel was sold for scrap in 1920, while Chasseloup-Laubat ultimately foundered in 1926 after having been abandoned in the bay of Nouadhibou, French Mauritania.

In the late 1880s, the Italian Regia Marina (Royal Navy) accelerated construction of ships for its fleet and reorganized the most modern ironclad battleships—the Duilio and Italia classes—into a fast squadron suitable for offensive operations.

The visit of a German squadron of four ironclads to Italy compounded French concerns about a combined Italo-German fleet that would dramatically outnumber their own.

In addition to twenty-four new battleships, a total of seventy cruisers were to be built for use in home waters and overseas in the French colonial empire.

[2][3] On 28 March 1890, the French naval minister, Édouard Barbey, requested a new design for an improved version of the cruiser Davout from Delphin Albert Lhomme, the supervisor of construction at Toulon.

[4] On 21 August, Lhomme submitted his proposal, which Barbey forwarded to the Conseil des Travaux (Council of Works) six days later for review.

The fighting top was to be retained, but it was determined that it would have to be removed to improve stability, which Gustave Besnard, by then the naval minister, ordered on 16 February 1895.

They had a forecastle deck that extended for almost the entire length of the ship, terminating with a short quarterdeck aft and a sloped stern.

The former were carried in pairs in the forward and aft conning towers on the upper deck; the latter were distributed around the ships, including atop the sponsons for the main guns and higher in the superstructure.

[8] Friant and Chasseloup-Laubat spent their first years in service assigned to the Northern Squadron, based in the English Channel.

During that time, she participated in the International Squadron, composed of ships from several of the Great Powers, that intervened in the Cretan Revolt of 1897–1898.

[16][17] Bugeaud was deployed to East Asia by early 1900 in response to the Boxer Uprising,[18] and the other two members of the class had followed her there by 1901,[19] and they remained in the region after the conflict ended.

Unable to economically repair her, the French Navy struck the ship from the naval register and sold her for scrap.

[25] In September, she was moved to French Morocco to join a group of cruisers patrolling for German commerce raiders.

[26][27] At some point after the start of the conflict, Chasseloup-Laubat was converted into a distilling ship to support the main French fleet at Corfu.

[13] Chasseloup-Laubat was sent to Port Etienne, French Mauritania, to supply the colony with water and eventually sank in 1926 in the bay of Nouadhibou after having been abandoned.