Bussard-class cruiser was present in the Caribbean during the Spanish–American War in 1898, though she took no active role in the conflict. Between 1898 and 1900, "Bussard" and "Seeadler" were modernized in Germany. In 1900, "Seeadler" participated in the suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in China, including a blockade of the Chinese coast. In December 1902, "Falke" and the protected cruiser joined British forces in the Venezuela Crisis of 1902–03 after Venezuelan forces seized a British merchant ship. The two cruisers helped British warships bombard Venezuelan coastal fortifications and blockade the coast. "Cormoran" and "Geier" were modernized between 1907 and 1909; only
Protected cruiser and replaced with a single military mast with machine guns. The next class of small cruisers in the Royal Navy, the , were protected cruisers, but the Royal Navy returned to the armoured cruiser with the , begun in 1885 and completed in 1889. However, in 1887 an assessment of the "Orlando" type judged them inferior to the protected cruisers and thereafter the Royal Navy only built protected cruisers, even for very large first-class cruiser designs, returning to armoured cruisers only in the late 1890s with the , laid down in 1898. The sole major naval power to retain a