ABSTRACT
The era of the Jeune École, the French “Young School” advocating modern unarmored cruisers and torpedo boats over armored battleships, reached its peak in 1886–87, when the school's founder, Admiral Théophile Aube, served as French navy minister. The ideas of the group were rooted in the technological developments of the mid-1870s; its members drew further inspiration from Russia's use of torpedo launches against the Ottoman navy in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. The school had a near-universal impact by the mid-1880s and remained strong in some navies until the mid-1890s. Aube, whose own service had been largely on colonial stations, rejected ironclads from the start and lamented the evolution of two fleets – one for home waters and one for overseas duties – that had occurred within all navies by the 1870s. The self-propelled torpedo was his weapon of choice and ruthless commerce raiding his tactic. Aube saw the overall Jeune École strategy as a means for France to chal-lenge British naval power worldwide.
