Torpedo boats, submarines, and global imperial commitments

Torpedoes gave the Jeune École a more credible means of threatening battleships and helped drive the evolution of torpedo boats, destroyers, and submarines. The Whitehead torpedo was a genuine advance beyond the dangerous limitations of spar torpedoes. Yet the strategic difficulty remained that flotilla craft could not provide persistent worldwide presence across the French Empire. Cruisers could handle distant missions, but an isolated cruiser might be trapped by an enemy battleship, showing why the new weapon did not erase other fleet requirements.