Why torpedo boats produced the destroyer

The Whitehead torpedo let a small craft threaten a battleship without the near-suicidal contact required by a spar torpedo. French Jeune Ecole advocates treated cheap torpedo boats as a way to defeat an approaching battle fleet while cruisers attacked its trade. Distant blockade frustrated the short-range premise, while quick-firing guns could keep attackers farther away and force easier-to-dodge launches. Early self-propelled torpedoes were also unreliable enough that navies could not base their entire defense on the weapon working as intended. The escalation produced larger torpedo boats and then larger, gun-armed craft built to hunt them. Their literal name, torpedo boat destroyer, was eventually shortened to destroyer. Mounting the same defensive guns on battleships and cruisers also consumed deck space and encouraged larger ships. Destroyers then provoked another response in the form of still larger torpedo boat destroyers.