The République class was a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships of the French Navy; the ships were République, the lead ship, and Patrie. Built between 1901 and December 1906, they were actually completed at the same time as the British HMS Dreadnought, the revolutionary design of which rendered the French ships obsolete before they entered service. Nevertheless, the design for République and Patrie corrected many of the problems in earlier French battleships.