fire (explosive shells falling on their targets largely from above, instead of from a trajectory close to horizontal) was a much greater threat than had been thought. Gunboat diplomacy was typically conducted by cruisers or smaller warships. A British squadron of three protected cruisers and two gunboats brought about the capitulation of Zanzibar in 1896; and while battleships participated in the combined fleet Western powers deployed during the Boxer Rebellion, the naval part of the action was performed by gunboats, destroyers and sloops. Europe European navies remained dominant in the pre-dreadnought era. The Royal Navy remained the world's largest fleet, though both Britain's traditional naval rivals and the new European powers increasingly asserted themselves against its supremacy. In 1889, Britain formally adopted a 'two power standard' committing it to building enough battleships to exceed the two largest other navies combined; at the time, this meant France and Russia, which became formally allied in the early 1890s. The Royal Sovereign and Majestic classes were followed by a regular programme of construction at a much quicker pace than in previous years. The , , and classes appeared in rapid succession from 1897 to 1905. Counting two ships ordered by Chile but taken over by the British, the Royal Navy had 39 pre-dreadnought battleships ready or being built by 1904, starting the count from the Majestics. Over two dozen older battleships remained in service. The last British pre-dreadnoughts, the Lord Nelsons, appeared after Dreadnought herself. France, Britain's traditional naval rival, had paused its battleship building during the 1880s because of the influence of the Jeune École doctrine, which favoured torpedo boats to battleships. After the Jeune École's influence faded, the first French battleship laid down was , in 1889. Brennus and the ships which followed her were individual, as opposed to the large classes of British ships; they also carried an idiosyncratic arrangement of heavy guns, with Brennus carrying three guns and the ships which followed carrying two 12-inch and two 10.8-inch guns in single turrets. The Charlemagne class, laid down 1894–1896, were the first to adopt the standard four gun heavy armament. The Jeune École retained a strong influence on French naval strategy, and by the end of the 19th century France had abandoned competition with Britain in battleship numbers. The French suffered the most from the dreadnought revolution, with four ships of the still building when Dreadnought launched, and a further