Cruisers and La Guerre de Course

The astonishingly effective campaign waged by a handful of Confederate raiders during the Civil War was keenly watched in France and Russia, and above all in Britain. In the fifty years which followed, the most sensitive area in the balance of naval power was the potential damage to worldwide commerce which could be caused by raiders. The steel-built protected cruiser, as a warship type, was evolved to counter this threat. Many countries engaged in the development of cruisers, some to give force to the threat, and some for commerce protection.