Jeune École

It advocated the use of small, heavily armed vessels to combat larger battleships, and the use of commerce raiders to cripple the trade of the rival nation.

One of the first proponents of the Jeune École was the artillery general Henri-Joseph Paixhans, who invented explosive shell guns for warships during the 1820s.

The other constitutive part of the Jeune École concept consisted of planning to raid the commercial ships of the enemy so as to curtail its trade and economy, again a tactic designed especially against Great Britain.

Dupuy de Lôme, an armored cruiser laid down in 1888, was capable of 23 knots and was designed to raid enemy commerce ships during extended forays.

British admiral "Jackie" Fisher, who would later become the First Sea Lord in 1904, was especially impressed by the ideas of Jeune École and felt that the threats of fast raiders and swarms of torpedo boats made the traditional battleship too unwieldy.